The most combative rider award that Jasper Stuyven ended up with on stage 9 of the Tour de France clearly wasn’t much of a consolation, the disappointment thick in the Lidl-Trek rider’s voice during his post-stage interviews. That first win at the Tour for a moment had seemed within reach but was snatched from his grasp once again.
Stuyven has made it into the top ten of a Tour de France stage 25 times, four times stepping up to the podium with his best result being a second place on stage 7 in 2021, the year he won Milan-San Remo. That time he was out front with eventual winner Matej Mohorič, but ended up being dropped on Signal d’Uchon, but in this year's gravel-heavy stage, Stuyven was the one who tried to drop all his rivals instead.
Out front with the break, Stuyven cannily waited until a rival's attempted attack was reeled back in before quickly countering at just over 11km to go. He established a small gap despite the scrambling behind to try and prevent the powerful European gravel champion from getting away.
Stuyven entered the final gravel section alone, having established a gap of around ten seconds.
“I tried, I tried everything," said Stuyven. "Maybe it would have been nice to not have such a strong headwind for the last few kilometres, and they didn’t really look enough at each other behind me, but I think I left it all out there."
As Stuyven appeared to fade, the pursuit continued behind, with the small group ultimately catching the 32-year-old, who is riding his eighth Tour de France, just past the flame rouge. Stuyven then had to watch them take off ahead and battle for the victory that had just minutes before looked like it could be his. Anthony Turgis (Total Energies) sprinted to victory ahead of Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) while Stuyven had to settle for eighth.
"I just wish I could have pushed a little harder towards the end but, it is what it is and unfortunately it wasn’t enough," said Stuyven in a media release from the team, which suffered a blow to its Tour de France plans when the two-time stage winner, Mads Pedersen, did not start stage 8 due the injuries caused by an earlier crash.
When asked, in the post-race interview, if there was at least some satisfaction to be gained from his show of form, Stuyven replied "At the moment, it is hard to see the positives but we will see what happens over the rest of the race.
"I think this was really a big opportunity for me and I was close. Now, I think I will just enjoy the rest day and then I can maybe look to see what’s possible in the next part of the race and if there are any more chances.”
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