Châteauroux is known for sprinkling a little bit of magic on the Tour de France. The city in the Centre-Val de Loire region has been home to three of Mark Cavendish’s historic sprint victories, with a sign recently placed on its entrance reading ‘Cavendish City’ in honour of the Manx superstar. When the Tour was due to return to Châteauroux in 2025, there was a moment where it seemed we could be witnessing another romantic, fairytale ending that this leafy, sleepy, picturesque place has been so good at writing.
On paper, stage nine should have been another simple sprint day. This was all there was to it: a pan-flat 174km route winding through sunflower fields and vineyards on a balmy Sunday afternoon in Northern France. But there was one team who wanted to rewrite the playbook. Few would have expected the jersey of former world champion Mathieu van der Poel and his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate, Jonas Rickaert, to be the first attackers of the day and to build a gap of over five minutes at its biggest. This is a team who have already won two stages of the Tour, one of them with a rider who has perhaps the most decorated palmarès of the entire peloton. This is not something someone of Van der Poel’s stature is supposed to do. But this is a rider who does not play by your rules.
“We were talking about it because also yesterday we saw the two guys from Total[Energies] try to do something. They knew in advance that it was almost, or for sure, impossible what they did, but at least they tried,” Alpecin-Deceuninck team manager Christoph Roodhooft commented after the stage. “Trying to do something that is not on-paper or in the plan has its value, and especially here in the Tour. With a bit more luck, probably we could have brought it to a good end. It was more than worth trying.”
In an otherwise relatively lacklustre stage which was devoid of any real action until the sprint finish, Van der Poel and Rickaert entertained us on stage nine. Their collective strength put the sprinters' teams under pressure, with the Dutch rider eventually caught just 700 metres from the finish line in Châteauroux as Tim Merlier went on to win the stage for Soudal-Quick Step. It was as if Alpecin-Deceuninck were sending a message to the rest of the peloton: Wake up. We are in a bike race. Let’s race.
"The goal was to attempt a breakaway. We thought other teams would be interested in being part of it, but in the end, it was just Mathieu and Jonas. They went very far. It wasn't much that was missing to get there,” Alpecin’s Silvan Dillier told the media at the end of the stage.
The Swiss riders point is valid: why did no other riders try to get involved in the breakaway? Where is the fight from smaller teams to make it harder for pre-race favourites like Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek and Merlier’s Quick-Step squad to run away with simple stage wins? Van der Poel and Rickaert proved today that it is possible to fracture the lead-out train of Trek and put serious pressure on the sprint teams if you dare to do so. Even if it doesn’t pay off, there is beauty in losing after having tried everything to win.
In the end, Merlier crossed the finish line, as largely expected, with his arms aloft and Alpecin did not get their stage win, even if they might have deserved it the most. Cycling doesn’t work like that. Still, Châteauroux granted a little bit of its magic to the riders who had given their all to make stage nine a spectacle. Van der Poel admitted after the stage that his 31-year-old teammate, Rickaert, has always dreamed of standing on the podium of the Tour de France. At the end of stage nine, the Belgian rider was awarded the prize for being the most combative rider of the day – a fitting outcome for the efforts of his team.
"It's a bit of a disappointment. We didn't think we'd be so close. No regrets. Rickaert dreamed of reaching the podium for the combative, I wanted to help. It was a great day for the two of us. We talked last night; you never know with the wind,” Van der Poel smiled a few moments after crossing the finish line.
“We wanted to go for it today because it's his dream to be on the podium of a Tour de France,” Van der Poel said. “It's hard not to be able to finish it off but we put up a good show today.”
It’s true that professional bike racing is about success, but sport, at its very core, is entertainment. It is storytelling. It is a spectacle. Victories are only valuable if people are there to see them. Neither Van der Poel or Rickaert won on stage nine of the Tour de France, but they made the bike race worth watching. The former world champion showed empathy, heart and humanity by helping his teammate's dream come true. It is not always just about winning.
