Mathieu van der Poel wins the ninth stage of the 2026 Tour de France, which was shortened by 30km.

Mathieu van der Poel won his third career Tour de France stage in a sprint finish on stage nine, which was shortened due to temperatures approaching 40C. The 31-year-old Dutchman finished ahead of Denmark's Tobias Johannessen and Great Britain's Tom Pidcock in a breakaway pack. Pidcock was going for a second Tour stage win of his career, but was hampered by a mechanical problem with his chain cassette or derailleur. Sunday's ninth stage from Malemort to Ussel was around 30km shorter than planned because of a "red alert" from the French authorities. Defending champion Tadej Pogacar finished in the chasing peloton six seconds behind the winner to keep the leader's yellow jersey heading into Monday's first rest day. Van der Poel said that it was a "super-hard day" but the heat was "for sure" better than during the first few days of the Tour. "I was struggling and finding it difficult to recover, even from the easier [stages]," he told TNT Sports. "The past few days I've felt a bit better and today I finally had some legs to go for it." Van der Poel had previously won stages in 2021 and 2025 and is a three-time winner of both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.