Tour de France 2025 LIVE: Stage 9 route, standings & updates

Tim Merlier won the sprint finish of stage nine, the 174.1km route from Chinon to Chateauroux. Tadej Pogacar retained the leader's yellow jersey, and Jonathan Milan leads the points classification.

Tomorrow's stage, coinciding with Bastille Day instead of a rest day, features significant climbing with 4,400m of elevation gain across seven category-two climbs and one category-three climb. This challenging profile is expected to trouble sprinters early on and favour breakaway specialists. French riders are anticipated to be particularly motivated to form part of a breakaway, aiming to become the first French stage winner on Bastille Day since 2017. While the mountains should reshuffle the General Classification (GC) standings, it is not expected to cause major issues for the top favourites.

Race leader Tadej Pogacar described stage nine as "fast and furious," attributing the pace to the breakaway riders and the wind. He anticipates a "really hard race" on the upcoming climbing stage. Pogacar also expressed sadness over teammate Joao Almeida's abandonment of the race.

Mathieu van der Poel delivered an extraordinary performance, spending 173km of the stage in a breakaway at an average speed of 49.9 km/h. Despite his mammoth effort, he was caught near the finish and crossed the line 17 seconds behind winner Merlier in a group with Wout van Aert and Sepp Kuss. Consequently, van der Poel was the only rider in the top 10 of the GC to lose time, dropping from fifth to sixth place overall.