The harder a race gets, the more likely it seems that Mathieu van der Poel will win it. A look at the incredible figures of stage 9 of the Tour de France certainly plays into that hypothesis, with a shortened 155.5km stage to Ussel being stuffed with 3,300m of elevation gain and raced at an average speed of 44.6kph.
The breakaway took 55km of non-stop attacking to form, with wave after wave of riders heading out of Malemort hoping their move would stick. When a break did finally get away, it was full of elite riders, showing just how difficult it was to even make it into the move.
Alongside Van der Poel were the likes of Tom Pidcock, Tobias Halland Johannessen, Quinn Simmons and Alex Baudin. And to make matters worse for those in the lead, having fought tooth and nail to get up the road, UAE Team Emirates-XRG had started chasing.
Latest Videos From
Even without a finish line suited to race leader Tadej Pogačar, to further establish his dominance, the men in black and white kept the break on a tight leash, barely allowing more than a minute-wide lead. At the finish after just three and a half hours of all-out racing, Van der Poel would arrive victorious, but with only six seconds to spare on the Filippo Ganna-led peloton.
"No," was how Van der Poel responded when asked if he understood what UAE were doing in the finale in his stage winner's press conference.
"Well I can understand Ineos' tactic because maybe they were hoping for a stage win with Dorian Godon," – who was dropped by this point but Ganna is a worthy second option, shown in him beating Mads Pedersen to the line – "but in the end it was a good thing for me, because we had to ride flat out in the breakaway, and that played in my favour in the end," he said.
Amid sweltering hot conditions, another day in succession above 40°C at times, Van der Poel – who had arrived at the Tour away from his best and struggled in the heat of the opening stages – finally found his rhythm, and he was able to use it to full advantage.
"The most difficult part is to be in the breakaway on days like this," said Van der Poel after taking, surprisingly, just his third Tour stage win.
"Actually, the first hour of the race I didn't feel so great, but then the legs came better and better, and when I finally was in the break, I became more confident because I felt I had a good day and the heat was not affecting me that much today. But still, it was a very difficult day, because the gap was never too big to the bunch."
By his ultra-high standards, 2026 hasn't been the best season, missing out on adding to his Monument tally as Pogacar and long-term rival Wout van Aert took home the spoils, and only four times – albeit all at big races.
The same can be said of Alpecin-Premier Tech co-leader Jasper Philipsen, who had failed to deliver two sprint victories in a row on stages 7 and 8 off the back of top-class Van der Poel lead-outs, but the Dutchman noted how the building pressure is mostly as a result of how regular their well-oiled machine had made such feats look in the past.
"It's just my third Tour victory; it shows how hard it is for me to win a stage at the Tour, so it will always be special to win one," he said, also stressing how important "not panicking" was to keeping morale high.
"Just sometimes it looks really easy because in the past seasons we always succeeded in winning a Monument or winning a sprint in a Tour, but we know that it will not always come that easy; of course, that's also why we just keep working and keep believing in it. That's all we can do."
Unlike Pedersen's breakaway win into Foix on stage 5, Van der Poel revealed that he hadn't had the day circled as a potential winning spot for months, opting to go more with the flow of the race and only turn to attack mode when he feels good.
"I don't really do it actually, I'm more a guy that looks day by day at the profile and also how I feel," he said.
"It's always easy to make a plan, of course, before the Tour, but if you see the stage that Pedersen wins, for example, you can make a plan, but if you don't have the legs, it's very difficult to execute, so I just see it day by day and try to grab the chances I get."
The world’s biggest bike race deserves world-class coverage. Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our unrivalled reporting of the 2026 Tour de France. From Barcelona through to Paris, our experienced team will bring you breaking news, expert insight, and in-depth coverage from every stage as the battle for the yellow jersey plays out. Plus, access the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! Find out more.
