Tim Merlier wins stage nine of the Tour de France in a sprint finish as Mathieu van der Poel's hopes of an audacious breakaway victory are dashed inside the final kilometre.

Tim Merlier out-sprinted Jonathan Milan to victory on stage nine of the Tour de France after Mathieu van der Poel almost pulled off an audacious win in Chateauroux.Van der Poel had rolled off the front of the peloton alongside teammate Jonas Rickaert at the start of the 174km stage from Chinon in what looked like a certain suicide mission,

The stage was very animated thanks to a brilliant two-man time trial from Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert! The Alpecin-Deceuninck duo brought life to an otherwise uneventful sprinters’ stage,

"It was quite okay in the bunch today but with the echelons attempts in the finale, I didn’t get any drink in the last 60 kilometres, so I was a bit overheated. Apart from that, it was quite okay today although it was nervous. Five minutes and a half was ...