Tim Merlier takes sprint win on stage 9 as Mathieu van der Poel's heroic breakaway falls just short at the 2025 Tour de France

Soudal - Quick-Step's Tim Merlier has powered to his second stage win of the 2025 Tour de France on stage 9. The hero of the day though, was Mathieu van der Poel's whose heroic breakaway effort just fell short in the final kilometre.

Somewhat surprisingly, Mathieu van der Poel was the main instigator of the fighting for the breakaway on this widely predicted regulation sprint stage. Going clear with his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jonas Rickaert, the pair formed a two man carrot for the peloton to chase.

With 100km to go, Van der Poel and Rickaert were over five minutes clear of the bunch, with Lidl-Trek, team of stage 8 winner Jonathan Milan clearly having been tasked with the near-sole control of the time gap.

With around 75km to go, the sad news then arrived that Tadej Pogacar's right hand man Joao Almeida had been forced to abandon the race, as the Portuguese star's struggles with a fractured rib following a stage 7 crash ultimately proved too much to bare, even on a relatively flat stage as this one.

Not long after Almeida's abandon, Pogacar had something else to think about though, as echelons began to split the peloton. Arguably the biggest rider to miss out on selection in front group was Team Picnic PostNL's Oscar Onley, who started the day 7th in the GC. Thanks to the quick work of his team however, the Scot was safely back in the peloton at 68km to go, having closed the gap.

Through all this though, the gap to Van der Poel and Rickaert up front was beginning to close. By the time the Alpecin-Deceuninck duo reached the final 50km, they had just 2:25 over the peloton.

With just over 30km to go, Team Visma | Lease a Bike then came to the front of the peloton and absolutely exploded the race with even Jonas Vingegaard himself doing a monster turn on the front of the peloton. The effects were massive too as the bunch split hugely behind, leaving Tadej Pogacar with only Tim Wellens for support. In the process, the gap to Van der Poel at the front was coming down very quick too, cut to just 30 seconds at 25km.

Soon after the 25km to go mark however, Visma pulled the plug on their pressuring, and as things regrouped slightly in the peloton, Van der Poel and Rickaert pushed back out to the minute mark by 19km to go.

With 10km to go, Van der Poel and Rickaert were still holding strong at the front of the race, 51 seconds clear. And as the chase became disorganised, it was still 33 seconds when Rickaert finally pulled the plug at the front, leaving Van der Poel solo for the last 6km.

At 3km to go, the gap to Van der Poel had been cut to just 15 seconds, with the Dutch superstar beginning to tire. There was no quit in Van der Poel though, but as he went through the Flamme Rouge he was basically in touching distance and was caught moments later.

Then, in a truly chaotic sprint finish, Tim Merlier narrowly defeated Jonathan Milan and Arnaud De Lie in the fight for the line.