Mathieu van der Poel timed his attack perfectly to win the hilly ninth stage of the Tour de France in a sprint finish, while defending champion Tadej Pogacar kept the race leader’s yellow jersey on Sunday.
Van der Poel was in a group of four contesting the victory. He accelerated with about 200 meters to go, then held off Norwegian rider Tobias Johannessen and Britain’s Tom Pidcock before spreading his arms as he crossed the line. All three were timed at 3 hours, 27 minutes, 51 seconds.
“It was a really hard stage after a hard week for the team,” said Van der Poel, who rides for Alpecin-Premier Tech.
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