Anthony Turgis emerges from gravel traps on dramatic Tour stage

Anthony Turgis denied Tom Pidcock victory on the line in Troyes at the end of a dusty, chaotic stage nine of the Tour de France on the gravel roads of Champagne country.

Turgis and Pidcock - plus Ireland's Ben Healy - were in a group of riders who spent virtually all of the 199km stage in a breakaway and it came down to a reduced sprint, with Pidcock slamming his handlebars in frustration after coming within metres of a second career Tour stage.

Behind, race leader Tadej Pogacar tested the mettle of his general classification rivals several times on the 14 gravel sections which characterised the day, with Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic all having issues at different times.

But by the end there were no time gaps between the main contenders as they crossed the line a little under two minutes after Turgis.

The inclusion of a stage featuring some 32 kilometres of gravel sectors – full of jeopardy for those targeting yellow – caused great controversy in the build-up to the Tour but there was no doubting the entertainment value.

An almighty battle to get into the breakaway led to a rapid pace from the off and things rarely settled down for the next four-and-a-half hours.

Pidcock missed the initial split but hooked up with Healy (below) to make the bridge after the first gravel sector, making it a 12-strong group out in front.

Their advantage grew to two-and-a-half minutes early on but then soon tumbled as Roglic lost ground behind splits at the back of the main peloton in the early gravel sectors, prompting Pogacar to attack in a bid to put his fellow Slovenian into trouble.

A mechanical issue forced Vingegaard to take the bike of his team-mate Jan Tratnik, and such was the pace that he would never be able to