Van der Poel wins shortened Tour stage in 40C heat

Van der Poel wins shortened Tour stage in 40C heatImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Stage nine was shortened by 30 minutes because of extreme heatByAdam MillingtonBBC Sport journalistPublished28 minutes agoMathieu van der Poel won his third stage at the Tour de France 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 but was hampered by a mechanical fault.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.A mechanical issue which surfaced at around 25km from the end of the stage held back Pidcock, who was left unable to change gear. He kept up with the breakaway pack but could not match Van der Poel when he sprinted for the line."My shifter stopped working," said Pidcock. "I couldn't change gear. My bike was perfect the whole race and then today when the win was there, it doesn't work."Anyway, Mathieu is a difficult one to beat in a sprint situation like that. It would be difficult anyway, so I'm happy for a good day's racing. It's a nice d...