Uno-X Mobility look to be work with Lidl-Trek at the front of the main bunch. The chasers slash about 30 seconds off the leading duo but the gap is still over five minutes.

Joao Almeida gets back on. These cyclists are a tough lot.

Is trouble brewing for UAE Team Emirates here?

Tadej Pogacar's Portuguese lieutenant Joao Almeida is dropped from the main bunch. He got through stage eight yesterday despite sustaining some pretty nasty injuries including a broken rib in a crash towards the end of stage seven.

Meanwhile, German rider Georg Zimmerman (Intermarche-Wanty), goes down on the grass verge at the side of the road and is checked by medical staff. It looks a sore one, he looks to have taken a fair bit of skin off there.

Image source, Getty Images

Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert now have an advantage of five-and-a-half minutes give or take a second or two.

The smart money would be on them being slowly reeled in by the main bunch but they are a dangerous duo and the sprint teams can't afford to let this go out much further.

The problem Lidl-Trek have at present is that nobody else seems that interested in helping them drive the peloton.

Here are the results of the intermediate sprint earlier:

1. Mathieu Van der Poel, 20 pts

2. Jonas Rickaert, 17 pts

3. Jonathan Milan, 15 pts

4. Biniam Girmay, 13 pts

5. Tim Merlier, 11 pts

6. Anthony Turgis, 10 pts

7. Simone Consonni, 9 pts

8. Bryan Coquard, 8 pts

9. Arnaud de Lie, 7 pts

10. Luke Plapp, 6 pts

There's a pile up in the peloton and Ion Izaguirre (Cofidis), Sam Watson (Ineos Grenadiers), Soren Waerenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) and Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL) are involved.

Everyone is back on their bikes fairly quickly although Norway's Waerenskjold looks to be in pain.

Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert are going some here albeit there is a long, long way to go.

The escapees look fully invested and have opened up almost five minutes on the main bunch.

Are Alpecin-Deceuninck trying to spring a surprise here? Van der Poel won the Paris-Roubaix in 2024 with a spontaneous long-range effort but that was only 60km and not anything like today.

Or is a potential chase to reel them in towards the end designed to take something out of Lidl-trek and Jonathan Milan's legs?

Image source, Getty Images

The big question today is will anybody be able to beat Jonathan Milan at the finish?

The Italian was dominant on stage eight but the likes of Tim Merlier, Biniam Girmay and Kaden Groves will be looking for victory today.

As apparently will Wout van Aert.

The Belgian was second on Saturday to Milan and having swerved bunch sprints for most of the year looked to have found his sprinting legs.

And in a post on X this morning, Van Aert declared his intentions to contest the sprint again today.

Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert take the 20 and 17 points at the intermediate sprint and having been allowed to take over three-and-a-half minutes on the peloton decide that are not going to sit up.

This is intriguing.

The Alpecin-Deceuninck riders have got a tough day in the saddle ahead of them now.

Now then, pretty much from the flag drop Jonas Rickaert and Mathieu van der Poel, attacked and got up the road.

That move was almost certainly with the points classification in mind given the intermediate sprint is looming.

Van der Poel is currently fourth place in the race for the green 108 points, with a 74-point deficit to the leader in that classification, Jonathan Milan.

And here's how the GC looked after stage eight.

1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Emirates-XRG) 25hrs 58mins 4secs
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal Quick-Step) +54secs
3. Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +1min 11secs
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) +1min 17secs
5. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned/Alpecin-Deceuninck) +1min 29secs
6. Matteo Jorgenson (US/Visma-Lease a Bike) +1min 34secs
7. Oscar Onley (GB/Picnic PostNL) +2mins 49secs
8. Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull-Bora hansgrohe) +3mins 2secs
9. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull-Bora hansgrohe) +3mins 6secs
10. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) +3mins 43secs

As I wrote a little earlier the finish in Chateauroux, is a place synonymous with Mark Cavendish, who holds the record for winning the most Tour de France stages (35).

Image source, ASO

Image source, ASO

Today the race travels 174.1km into Chateauroux which should bring back some happy memories for Mark Cavendish fans.

'The Manx Missile' won three of his 35 stages in Chateauroux including his first back in 2008.

And with a relatively simple parcours a bunch sprint will almost certainly be on the menu when the peloton embarks from the historic town of Chinon which is known for its wine.

Image source, Reuters

Welcome to our coverage of stage nine of the Tour de France.

Racing is under way and this stage is basically made for sprinters. It's an even easier route than Saturday's on paper although although it is scorchio again out on the road today, with temperatures heading north of 30ºC.

However, things could get interesting later if the wind starts to blow with several segments opening up the possibility of echelons.