Stage 9 of the Tour de France was supposed to end with a sprint on Sunday. Yet, a thrilling final took place before the fast men were able to fight for the win in Châteauroux. While Mathieu van der Poel was caught in the final kilometre, Paul Penhoët benefited from the excellent support of Cyril Barthe and Clément Russo in the closing moments to join the fight, securing a very solid fifth place at the finish line ; his first-ever top-5 finish on La Grande Boucle. On Monday, a very hilly stage will conclude the first – long – week of the Tour.
The second stage of this “sprinting” weekend was taking the Tour de France peloton to Châteauroux this Sunday, in a day that tallied 174 kilometres but no difficulties. Some were expecting a stage similar to the previous day, with almost no breakaway. Yet, right from kilometre 0, two men, including Mathieu van der Poel himself, broke away from the peloton, which didn’t react. So much so that the Dutchman and his teammate gained a lead of about 5 minutes and 30 seconds. Therefore, when the halfway point was reached with an almost unchanged situation, the peloton began to worry. “We know they are two big engines, and with the tailwind all day, it was obviously harder to catch them,” explained Paul Penhoët. “We knew it would have been difficult, and it took some time before the bunch really got going. From the moment things got more nervous with the crosswinds, we quickly got closer. It remained very tense, and the day went by really fast.” The first echelons formed with seventy kilometres to go, and the pack gradually closed in on the leading duo. Following a big push thirty kilometres from the finish, the gap even reduced to thirty seconds. “I think I raced really well throughout the day with Clément,” Paul added. “We were always well-positioned, never caught out.”
“Without Cyril and Clément, nothing would have been possible,” Paul Penhoët
With twenty kilometres to go, the bunch eased off a bit, which gave some hope to the two leaders, before really accelerating in the final ten kilometres. With five kilometers to go, Mathieu van der Poel still had a thirty-second lead, but the fight for position before the sprint meant he was caught just after the flamme rouge. It was the Groupama-FDJ train, led by Cyril Barthe and Clément Russo, that caught the Dutchman 700 metres from the finish. “I found Clément before entering the city, Cyril came afterward, and they did an incredible job,” Paul emphasized. “We saw that there was a slight downhill section in the last 500 meters,” added Benoît. “To fight for the win, we had to be in front at that point. We were where we hoped to be, so congratulations to Clément and Cyril for the work they did.” After a final pull, Clément Russo dropped his sprinter 500 metres from the finish, and Paul Penhoët then tried to finish it off. “I was really well positioned, then some guys came up on the right, and I knew I had to follow there,” Paul said. “I had to stop pedalling for a brief moment to avoid a rider, which made me lose a bit of speed, and I used a bullet at that point.”
The young Frenchman still managed to stay on the wheels of the main favorites, then put in a final effort to secure an excellent fifth place. “It’s positive and it breaks the recent downward spiral, with the crash in Dunkirk and the puncture yesterday,” Paul said. “It starts another nice momentum, but we really have to acknowledge the work of Cyril and Clément, who was truly incredible. It’s the Tour de France, and people might not realize it on television, but to lead out your sprinter in the final kilometre like they did, you need not only to be really motivated, but also to have a great condition. A big thank you to them. Nothing would have been possible without them. We always hope to do better, but a top-five finish in the biggest race in the world is still a good result. We’re showing that we belong here, we really need to stay positive, and I know we can do it in the next sprints.” “We had a great strategy in place around Paul, some great work was done, he was finally able to sprint, so there are no regrets,” added Benoît. “We’re back in the game! After a good start to the Tour, we needed that after Guillaume’s crash and yesterday’s puncture. It’s satisfying. It’s good that Paul completed the first week in this way.”
The first week will really end on Monday, July 14, with a very hilly tenth stage in the Massif Central. “It’s going to be a tough one,” assured Benoît. “It might even be one of the most difficult days for the non-climbers. Visma-Lease a Bike is likely to make it hard, and we can expect a big day out.” “It looks super hard, with 4,500 meters of elevation,” added Romain Grégoire. “There will be riders all over the place! We’ll try to get involved in the fight and see how the legs are. If we could get Guillaume into the breakaway, that would be ideal for us.”
