Van der Poel powers to stage victory in Ussel.

Dutchman dominates in Tour de France breakaway.

Mathieu van der Poel versus Peloton. Who wins that titanic struggle?

Stage nine of the Tour to France pitted the powerful Dutchman against a chasing peloton of around 38 riders.

Now, Van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) is incredibly strong. He has the strength of several men. I mean this is a guy with a big engine — like the twin turbo V8 in his Lamborghini Urus. But was he capable of holding off this many angry people?

Ok, he did have some help. When the race hit the steepest grades of the Suc au May (3.8 km at 7.7%) Van Der Poel closed the gap on the break. Now it was a deluxe group of eight riders, most notably Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Alex Baudin (EF Education), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermarché) and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling).

Then it was showtime for VDP. He attacked on Mont Bressou, whittling the group down to just Johannessen, Baudin (EF) and Pidcock. The sight of the slight frame of Pidcock tucked behind the big Van der Poel was almost comedic.

The peloton was in no mood to just hand the stage honors to the Dutchman. The gap is about a minute and now they’re going after him. Van der Poel does most of the driving, with Pidcock and Baudin occasionally chipping in with a short pull. Johannessen mostly sits in the back, happy to watch the show and save his watts.

In the peloton, it’s practically the entire Lidl-Trek squad up front chasing for Mads Pedersen. The man in the green jersey wants more points! But as the kilometers tick down, the gap isn’t getting much shorter. At 15k, Mads’ boys have cut only five seconds; at 10k they’ve trimmed another 10 but the catch doesn’t look promising.

Head down, motoring hard, Van der Poel is almost single-handedly holding them all off. With 3k to go to the finish, he’s still got 37 seconds and now even Johannessen throws in a few pulls.

Under the red kite, Van der Poel is confident enough in his legs that he doesn’t care if he has to sprint from the front. Even a final bit of slow-pedal, playing around, and a charging peloton just behind them doesn't change the outcome.

Van der Poel first, Johannessen second, Pidcock in third. Another way to score the stage: VDP 1, Peloton Zero. Not to mention, he got a nice, long kiss from his girlfriend Roxanne Bertels. A good day, all around.