Stage 9: Malemort → Ussel

Van der Poel showed his puncher credentials: breaking away from the escape group, he settled the small group at the sprint ahead of Tobias Halland Johannessen and Tom Pidcock on this rolling 185 km stage. Pogacar calmly keeps his yellow jersey, nothing changes at the top of the race.

The real earthquake is rumbling at the bottom of the contest standings. Out of 259 players, only 49 had ticked Mathieu van der Poel as winner : not bad considering the competition in the breakaway : and among them, a fine bunch are celebrating tonight: PaulW, KocJan, Senne04, JarneKopman, Charel, Fin, GuilCharl, Stan, Jelle, Gigi, Simmy, TitouanVelo, KobeDes and Fred_du_59 had all sensed the Dutchman's attack. Dutch nationality, meanwhile, only convinced 46 participants out of 259. On the other hand, the small group sprint finish was almost consensual (206 out of 259), and 204 had correctly seen that the yellow jersey wouldn't change hands. The trickiest bet? Best French or Belgian rider: Alex Baudin pulled a fast one on everyone : zero found out of 259. Everyone is in the same boat on this one.

As for best stage of the day, four players share the lead with 48 points each: Fred_du_59, Jempi, TomThom and Vinnie, with TitouanVelo (47 pts) and Antoinelefebvre (46 pts) in their immediate wake. But the real stories of the evening are the comebacks. Roos pulls off the day's sprint with +98 places to finish 91st. In the same vein, Jempi jumps 80 spots (96th), Simmy 68 (91st), Stan 65 (120th) and TitouanVelo 78 (102nd). A bit higher up, EnzLef gains 19 places (16th), TomThom takes 12 to settle 13th, Fin climbs 10 spots (19th), FreddyGent 15 (24th) and ThierryMons 15 as well (27th). Special mention to HugoBraquet (+40, 29th) and Steph 🦄 (+42, 30th) who make a remarkable entry into the top 30. Going the other way, jeroen76 and Ferre drop back 56 and 55 spots respectively : the flip side when van der Poel wasn't in the predictions. And this stage will remain painful for 63 players who left with zero points in their pocket : almost one in five, due to a combination of tight bets.

maxime patin continues to wear the contest's yellow jersey with disconcerting serenity: 282 points, 27 ahead of Hubogoss (2nd, +3 places), six stages finished at the top of the general. Mich_Mich remains 3rd (241 pts), Enzo 4th (233 pts), GauCol 5th (229 pts, +3). The leading group is slowly tightening, but maxime patin doesn't seem to want to ease up for now.