“The start of this Tour wasn’t very good for our team” – Mathieu van der Poel turns Alpecin-Premier Tech’s fortunes around with Stage 9 victory
Cycling
Mathieu van der Poel ended Alpecin-Premier Tech’s difficult start to the 2026 Tour de France with victory on Stage 9, beating Tobias Halland Johannessen and Tom Pidcock after a punishing day in the Correze heat.
The Dutchman helped keep the strongest breakaway alive, attacked on the final classified climb and then controlled the four-rider sprint in Ussel. “It was a very tough day,” Van der Poel said in his post-stage flash interview. “The start of this Tour wasn’t very good for our team, but we stayed calm. We have a good group and we believed we could turn it around. It’s really nice to go into the rest day with a victory.”
Van der Poel refuses to surrender breakaway chance
Stage 9 had been shortened from 185.5 to 155.5 kilometres after Correze was placed under a red heatwave alert, but the altered route still contained approximately 2,800 metres of climbing in temperatures around 37°C.
The relentless fight to escape eventually produced a 15-rider move before Pidcock bridged across alone. Further attacks reduced that group to eight, with Van der Poel joined by Pidcock, Johannessen, Alex Baudin, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Quinn Simmons, Derek Gee-West and Pablo Castrillo.
UAE Team Emirates – XRG refused to concede the stage and kept the gap close throughout the climbing. The advantage fell below one minute over the Cote de la Croix du Pey, while a reduced peloton containing Mads Pedersen remained close enough to threaten the breakaway.
Van der Poel tried to restore urgency whenever cooperation began to fail. When the leaders reached the 900-metre Mont Bessou with approximately 25 kilometres remaining, he accelerated from the front and briefly distanced every one of his companions.
Pidcock and Johannessen eventually regained contact, followed by Baudin. Pidcock then suffered a rear-derailleur problem, but kicked the mechanism back into operation while descending and returned to the leading quartet.
“I put a lot of energy into keeping the breakaway alive”
Lidl-Trek committed Simmons and Gee-West to Pedersen’s pursuit after both dropped back from the escape, while INEOS also contributed to the chase. The four leaders continued working as their advantage fluctuated around 40 seconds.
“Not that confident,” Van der Poel admitted when asked how certain he had been of winning the sprint. “I put a lot of energy into keeping the breakaway alive. We fought for it. I’m very happy to finish it off like this.”
The leaders delayed their tactical contest until the final two kilometres. Van der Poel entered the last kilometre on the front and held his position as the peloton closed to within 20 seconds.
He launched first on the rising finishing straight and held off Johannessen, with Pidcock completing the podium in third. Van der Poel’s victory gave Alpecin-Premier Tech its breakthrough on the final stage before the Tour’s first rest day.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- lol yeah. this is a good onemij12-11-2026
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- he's too young. he's 23, so not really a fair call yet.mij12-11-2026
- and don't forget Pidcock's departure. maybe he will never win a GT, but he knows how to light up a race.mij12-11-2026
- Bingo...I was going to say a 12 year obsessed Pogi fan girlie ! Like she's chasing a teen boy band! All glossy eyed about tadej!frieders312-11-2026
- That stint in the Pink was so good. If memory serves he struggled with the champagne cuz he'd never been on the podium before. I feel like it gave him some self-belief, and yeah - then the move to Visma to be one of their lieutenants has really brought him to the best version of himself.wrsty12-11-2026
- So, you never really compared Paul Seixas with his main rival Isaac Del Toro why jump to Pogačar? They've (Paul & Isaac) raced together here and there, and they've both shared in wins and losses, I think they should be compared to each other, even with Vingegaard and Remco first before even touching Pogačar. From your writing it's like he's better than Vingegaard, Remco and Del Toro already that his main target is now Pogačar 🤔Sadick11-11-2026
- gee i hope its a minor injury. a great rider and ambassador for the sport. get well soon Lucinda.
Davide11-11-2026 - some of lidl-treks retention and recruiting has been puzzling in the mens and womens teams.Davide11-11-2026
- Yeah his ride at World's was unreal. Over 6 W/kg for over an hour and a half...he single handedly destroyed the break.DAS11-11-2026
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