That’s all for today … Thanks for joining me and for all the emails. I appreciate your questions and thoughts on what was an exciting and rapid stage.

I’m signing off for the evening now, but don’t worry, the full post race report link will be posted here later by one of my colleagues.

I’ll leave you with this picture of today’s stage winner, Anthony Turgis, who looks very happy and relieved.

First TdF win for TotalEnergies since 2017:

That was the first win for Team TotalEnergies since 2017, so I’d say the team are pretty happy right now.

According to the official Tour de France website, the previous victory for the team was on 8 July 2017, when Lilian Calmejane won at Station des Rousses.

If you weren’t able to catch the finish, you can view it in this video:

A disappointed and emotional Tom Pidcock has spoken to reporters. He said:

In the group, I never show how I’m really feeling. I don’t respond straight away to attacks or I kind of do it a bit slower … it was hard.

This morning I was less than 57kg, so you know when you’re averaging 280 watts for four and a half hours, it’s quite a lot.”

Asked about what would have been a dream scenario for him, Pidcock said:

I mean that was kind of a good scenario but I knew that Stuyven was going to be the strongest one if he went. I think when he went, I was on the front, and I was hoping that the guys would respond from behind.

It’s always difficult to try and let that play out but you’ve got to also understand that everyone else in that group is also there to win.”

1km to go: Stuyven is reeled in. Healy looks keen and is pushing again. It’s going to come down to a sprint.

2km to go: Healy gets frustrated at the tactics of the Movistar riders who aren’t taking turns. He’s shot off in pursuit of Stuyven.

3km to go: Ooh, perhaps it was a winning move? Stuyven’s gap hasn’t been reduced and he’s still riding strong. Lidl-Trek are in his ear cheering him on.

5km to go: With 5km to go, it’s likely to be one of the breakaway riders that’ll take the stage win. Will Stuyven stay clear? Pidcock is a strong sprinter in that group.

6km to go: Stuyven has finished the final gravel sector with a lead of about 10 sec. Elsewhere, Pogačar is just sitting on the front of the peloton and is keen to take his own line through these tricky corners.

8km to go: Pogačar goes again but is unable to distance the group on his wheel. Meanwhile, Abrahamsen has popped up out of nowhere to attack from the peloton. He’s not troubling the leaders but his ears must have been burning after Anthony’s question about him earlier (see 4.06pm BST).

10km to go: Stuyven has attacked off the front of the breakaway, going into the final gravel sector. He wants to go it alone and has a 10sec gap already. Will the attack pay off?

15km to go: Pogačar wanted to press on but Visma-Lease a Bike and Vingegaard weren’t interested so it’s come back together again.

Meanwhile, the breakaway still holds a 40sec advantage over Van der Poel’s group. Is there enough time for the Dutch world champion to mount a late attack for the stage win?

Robin has got in touch with his take on answering Lydia’s earlier question (see 3:55pm BST) about Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel:

Loving the coverage today, thank you!

I think the top three had to drop back as they were given a very chilly welcome by the existing breakaway and it was clear there would be no cohesion or collaboration in that group. A lot of work for little return, especially with Vingo not committed to the chase.

Basically they gatecrashed the party and nobody wanted to hang out with them.

18km to go: Jorgensen has brought Vingegaard back to Pogačar and the three are now back together. Evenepoel is chasing hard and is about 10 seconds behind.

20km to go: Pogačar is pressing on. Christophe Laporte tried to bring Vingegaard back but ran out of gas. Matteo Jorgensen who was with Pogačar dropped back for Vingegaard.

29km to go: It’s all starting to squeeze up a bit, with Van der Poel’s group taking a bite out of the breakaway’s lead.

UAE Team Emirates have been working on the front of the peloton and their gap is now coming down towards 1min 30sec (it was 2min 20sec about 10km ago).

David says hello from sunny Wirral. Hi David!

He says:

This is a brilliant day of racing so far. It seems to think it is a one dayer, rather than a stage in the grander scheme of things. I’d look at Van Aert to pull some places back and do something special. Pidcock looks a bit tired, but he’s got such a strength when he digs in.

David’s also shared his concern for Vlasov after his crash.

33km to go: The riders are on the 1.2km Chemin du Ru de Paradis now. The gaps between the groups are stable at the moment.

Anthony has emailed in from the US and says:

Good morning from America! I haven’t been able to really catch much of this stage, do you know how Jonas Abrahamsen is faring today and the general mountain classifications thus far today? Thanks.

Abrahamsen briefly looked interested in getting in the breakaway at the start of today’s stage. His polka-dot jersey kept popping up then, but now he’s in the group somewhere off the back of the peloton. He’s probably feeling it a bit after yesterday’s exploits where he spent most of the stage on a solo breakaway.

39km to go: The peloton slowed and it seems a few riders thought about attacking, which was Van der Poel’s cue to get going. He’s in a group with Girmay, David Gaudu, Michael Matthews, Rasmus Tiller, Jakob Fuglsang and Rui Costa. They’ve already put a minute into the peloton and are a minute behind the breakaway.

Lydia asks:

Why did the GC top three join the breakaway but then fall back to the peloton?

That’s a very good question and I’m not certain of the answer. It looked like Vingegaard wasn’t interested and Evenepoel seemed a bit dissapointed. Any one else have any thoughts or theories?

46km to go: The riders are entering the seventh of today’s 14 gravel sectors. The action has settled down for the first time in a while. I’ll probably eat my words in a minute …

48km to go: Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) had a nasty crash but is back on the bike. He’s getting attention from the medical car now, who are dressing an injury to his elbow.

54km to go: The five at the front (Pidcock, Stuyven, Healy, Gee and Lutsenko) have been joined by Romo, Turgis and Aranburu.

Evenepoel is still quite far back in the peloton, fighting to move back up but the gravel sectors and narrow roads is making it a hard task.

57km to go: The groups are just going through the sixth ‘white road’ sector, which has some deep gravel. This has caused some issues.

Evenepoel had to stop but has got going again, although he now has to work hard to get back on the peloton.

In case this of interest to any of you, here are the results from the intermediate sprint earlier today:

Fontette intermediate sprint (83.5km)

• Turgis, 20 pts

• Romo, 17 pts

• Lazkano, 15 pts

• Vermeersh, 13 pts

• Pidcock, 11 pts

• Aranburu, 10 pts

• Van Gils, 9 pts

• Zingle, 8 pts

• Lutsenko, 7 pts

• Healy, 6 pts

• Stuyven, 5 pts

• Gee, 4 pts

• Stewart, 3 pts

• Cort, 2 pts

• Küng, 1 pt

64km to go: If you’re watching the TV coverage of this race, you’ll know what I mean when I say it looks like the riders are going through a dust storm as they tackle the fifth gravel sector.

68km to go: Well, that’s dissapointing. After blowing apart the race, Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel have willingly dropped back to the peloton.

Gee, Healy, Pidcock, Lutsenko and Stuyven are all that’s left in the breakaway now. They’ve got more than one minute over the peloton.

It’s a bumpy, dusty and testing day for the peloton today:

73km to go: Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel are with the breakaway now. It’s quite the strong breakaway now. Did we see this coming?

ITV4’s commentators are calling this “one of the greatest days of racing in recent memory”.

75km to go: Pogačar and Vingegaard have caught Evenepoel, who motions to his back wheel to encourage the trio to work together. Pogačar obliges but Vingegaard doesn’t take a turn. They’re going to catch the breakaway.

76km to go: Pogačar has set off in pursuit of Evenepoel and has taken Vingegaard with him. The peleton is left behind for now.

78km to go: It’s Visma-Lease a Bike’s turn to put the pressure on as Van Aert hits the front. Suddenly, Pogačar looks short of teammates. This is turning into a real battle for the GC riders.

80km to go: The longest of stage nine’s gravel sectors is coming up. Chemin de Loches-sur-Ource à Chacenay is a 4.2km gravel section.

Elsewhere in the race, Simon Yates and Richard Carapaz, are three minutes behind the peloton.

84km to go: Pogačar was joined briefly by Evenepoel but it’s now all back together. I thought this could be the moment. Vingegaard will be relieved.

91km to go: Gianni Vermeersch has been dropped from the breakaway. They have a slender 40 second advantage, so their chances of staying away are looking increasingly slim.

93km to go: We’re at the fourth gravel sector now: Chemin de Polisy à Celles-sur-Ource (3.4km).

Oier Lazkano (Movistar) has somehow been dropped from the breakaway and is now back in the peloton. Bit of a blow for Movistar as he would have been the favourite of their three riders in the group.

Denis has emailed in with this quip: “Vdust2 max today!”

So much dust was kicked up on that last gravel sector that at times, some of the riders weren’t visible in the coverage. I’ll try to find a pic.

96km to go: Vingegaard is working his way back up through the group on a bike that’s a tad big for him. He has help from Van Aert now. Panic over (for now).

99km to go: Vingegaard has had a mechanical, so UAE Team Emirates has pushed on try to distance him. Jan Tratnik gives Vingegaard his bike.

101km to go: The front group are on the third gravel sector now. It’s the Chemin des Hautes Forêts (1.5km), which is one of the harder gravel sectors apparently.

UAE Team Emirates are on the radio saying that they need the team to enter the sector at the front.

105km to go: It looks so warm and sunny there. I’ve just heard thunder here in London. There was speculation about how bad the gravel sectors would be if it rained on the Tour today, so at least they have dry conditions.

Now that Roglič is back in the peloton, the gap to the breakaway has stretched out to 1min 50sec. Pidcock looks pretty content in that front group.

This is very timely. Alex has got in touch about Roglič. Alex, who says he lived in Slovenia for a couple of years in the late nineties, describes Roglič as “my guy”, adding “likable as he is, Pog is just … well, too easy, almost like following Real Madrid”.

Paul has written in and he describes today as “fabulously chaotic racing”. That’s a good way of putting it. As he says, “the peleton is splitting into competing fragments.”

115km to go: Interestingly, as the commentators on the ITV4 coverage point out, today’s stage is pretty lumpy. It’s not just about the gravel or white roads.

Roglič has put in a monster effort to rejoin the yellow jersey group. He’s dragged a sizeable group behind him and has made it.

116km to go: The front group of about 14 riders are seeing their gap come down as the yellow jersey group try to distance Roglič. The gap between the breakaway and the yellow jersey group has reduced to about 1min 35sec. It seems to have stabilised for now.

Rouleur reporter, Rachel Jary, who is on the ground following the Tour de France wrote in a preview piece of today’s stage that it the peloton was “divided” over the gravel parcours.

As Jary puts it: “Punctures, crashes and fighting for positions: it might not be much fun for the bike riders, but popcorn at the ready for the rest of us.”

Pogačar spoke to her yesterday about today’s stage. He said:

I’m looking forward to it. I did a recon, so I know what’s waiting for us. I would say it’s not the most fun stage, but it depends how we race, depends on the wind, depends on the weather, depends on the peloton, what they want to do.

I think there can be a lot of variety in how the race can go, but I think I’m ready for all. Normally, I like these kinds of stages, but you never know what can happen.”

121km to go: The yellow jersey group is looking pretty small right now. The race has been strung out. Roglič is caught in a bigger group about 20sec behind the yellow jersey, but his group are pushing hard to get back.

124km to go: The next points on the road are from an intermediate sprint in about 9km, but this is not really going to be contested today. All the points will be mopped up by the breakaway.

127km to go: I think some of those predictions about today bringing chaos to the peloton were right. This also highlights Kennaugh’s earlier point about getting into a good position ahead of the gravel sectors.

At least at the moment, all the GC riders have kept themselves safe.

131km to go: The second group are on the gravel now and some of the riders are sliding all over the place. As the peloton come up behind, they’ve actually had to stop. Riders are now running and trying to remount.

131km to go: This is relentless. The front group, which now includes Powless, Healy and Pidcock, are on the second gravel sector. It’s pretty vicious with a steep gradient to start.

133km to go: Neilson Powless has been called back by his team to help his EF Education-EasyPost rider Healy bridge across to the front group. This is good news for Pidcock too.

Here are some images of the peloton on the first gravel sector, via the newswires:

139km to go: The ten riders off the front have now grown to 12. Tom Pidcock and Ben Healey are chasing – they’re 13 seconds behind the breakaway. There’s a third group containing Belgian champion Arnaud De Lie at 1min 10sec behind the leaders. The peloton are at 2min 6secs.

147km to go: That was sector 14, Bligny à Bergères, a 2km stretch of gravel with only one difficulty star. But, that’s done now and the riders are heading up the Côte des Bergères. It is a 1.9km category four col.

149km to go: There’s a group of ten ahead of the peloton with an advantage of 40 seconds. The ten are: They are: Elmar Reinders (Jayco-AlUla), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-dstny), Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team), Javier Romo (Movistar Team), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) and Anthony Turgis (Total Energies).

151km to go: Wow, the footage of this is incredible. As the peloton have come up to the first gravel sector, those at the back have virtually come to a standstill. They’re struggling with a bottleneck.

152km to go: There’s a group of about eight or nine riders that have broken away and they’re about to hit the first of the gravel sectors. Exciting!

156km to go: The GC teams are trying to control the peloton ahead of the first gravel sector. It was all together and calm for a moment but then Alpecin-Deceuninck have made a move.

Also, I didn’t get a chance to post this earlier, but here is how today’s stage looks on the map.

157km to go: Mathieu Van der Poel, one of the favourite’s for today’s stage is not taking his eyes off the attacks. He’s covering all the breaks.

161km to go: The front five had a gap of 11 seconds with the bunch traveling at 60km/h to get to them. They’ve been caught now.

There’s a new group going up the road now and it includes Mathieu van der Poel.

170km to go: The gap between the breakaway and the peloton has been reduced to eight seconds.

A couple of pre-race interviews are being shown on the coverage which are interesting. Tom Pidcock says he thinks the inclusion of the gravel sectors “provide a great spectacle for the fans and a challenge for the teams”. He says it will keep riders and teams “on their toes”.

Asked about the risks it could pose to GC contenders, Pidcock says plainly: “There’s always risks.” He also disagrees that today’s stage is anything like the Strade Bianche and instead thinks that today could end in a bunch sprint.

Simon Yates, on the other hand, does not seem to be a fan of the white roads in today’s stage. He dismisses the idea that gravel and cobbles were a part of Tours in the past, and says bluntly: “we’re in 2024”. He’s not keen on anything that adds risks of punctures and crashes.

176km to go: The group of five mentioned earlier have grown their gap from the peloton 25 seconds.

There’s moves from the bunch with attacks from riders including Fernando Gaviria (Movistar), Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) and García Pierna (Equipo Kern Pharma).

For those who love a random fact from the Tour de France, here’s one for today: Paul Lapeira (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) received his weight in Champagne this morning in Troyes, as recognition of his title as champion of France.

That’s pretty cool.

183km to go: There are five in the breakaway: Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Jarrad Drizners (Lotto-dstny), Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) and Paul Lapeira (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale). They have an eight second gap at the moment.

186km to go: The average pace of the peloton is 58km at the moment. ITV4’s commentators are chatting about how today is not a day for GC riders to ‘win’ the TdF but it could be a day in which they could lose it.

In a pre-race interview Jonas Vingegaard says he once came second in a gravel race but he also has “bad memories from gravel racing”.

Bill from Redcar is the first reader to get in touch today. He’s shared his thoughts on today’s gravel/white road stages, plus a lovely summary of the Tour so far:

There’s been some noise about the inclusion of ‘gravel stages’ and it’s not been well received in some circles. But, variety makes things interesting, and races with non tarmac bits are very popular and exciting. There’s always (often unfounded) concerns about changes to the status races, like the chicane in Paris-Roubaix this year.

Due to the changing surfaces, the potential to increase the variance within the GC might encourage thrilling heroics of those wanting to stand on the podium, and they’ll be wanting to get a proper stomp on, as fortune always favours the brave.

It’s been a very good seven stages so far (time trials don’t count), and it’s setting up nicely for superb battles in the weeks ahead.

192km to go: There’s plenty of points on offer for the KOM competition today so Jonas Abrahamsen looks as if he fancies being in the breakaway again today.

Stefan Bissegger of EF Education attacked but has been reeled back in.

Here’s a classic pre-rollout selfie from earlier.

There’s a few hundred metres left now until the neutralised sector is over and the flag drops for the race proper.

On the ITV4 coverage ex-pro Peter Kennaugh has been sharing his thoughts. He says it’s going to be one of the “most exciting days” as there are “so many unknowns”.

He explains that for the riders, it is key to get into position before hitting the white road sectors. Kennaugh says that once the riders are on the gravel, they can relax, but you don’t want to be jostling for position too late.

From my experience following the tricky terrain of Paris Roubaix in team cars, I often heard it said that the safest place is up the front away from any trouble.

As mentioned earlier, there are 14 gravel, or white road, sectors in stage nine.

Here they are listed according to their order of appearance in the stage, with the stars at the end of each line indicating the sector’s difficulty (** being harder), courtesy of the official Tour de France website:

• Chemin de Bligny à Bergères (2km), km 47.3 *

• Chemin de Baroville (1.2km), km 67 *

• Chemin des Hautes Forêts (1.5km), km 96.8 **

• Chemin de Polisy à Celles-sur-Ource (3.4km), km 105.2 *

• Chemin de Loches-sur-Ource à Chacenay (4.2km), km 118.6 *

• Chemin du Plateau de la Côte des Bar (2.2km), km, 131.9 *

• Chemin de Thieffrain à Magnant (3.9km), km 140.8 *

• Chemin de Briel-sur-Barse (2.2km), km 151.9 *

• Chemin du Ru de Paradis (1.2km), km 165.7 *

• Chemin de Fresnoy-le-Château à Clérey (1.8km), km 169 *

• Chemin de Verrières (1.5km), km 175 *

• Chemin de Daudes (1.9km), km 178 *

• Chemin de Montaulin à Rouilly-Saint-Loup (2.2km), km 182.3 **

• Chemin de Saint-Parres-aux-Tertres (3km), km 189.4 **

The rollout is expected in just a few minutes. Here’s some of the pre-start action via the official Tour de France X account:

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