92.5km to go: Wlodarczyk has attacked from the front, and dragged a few riders with her. Inside the final kilometre of the climb.

93km to go: “Totally agree with A.M. Rossell,” emails Michael.

“To try to go on the outside at that speed in such a corner was close to suicidal, Niewiadoma is actually lucky she didn’t end up in the barriers.

“Gery having done the pulling was ahead and had the freedom to take her line, those behind had to consider both possibilities but at that speed and with such a tricky corner it would have been totally unreasonable to expect her to ride it even sharper to move inward (Everyone at the front was taking it as wide as possible to keep the momentum). Gery couldn’t just evaporate.

“It was just the perfect place for an attack of this type and N was sour for not having been prepared. She should have expected and pre-empted the move before the corner.”

93km to go: I’m going to post two more recently received (and conflicting) emails about Niewiadoma v Gery, then we will move on.

94km to go: Niewiadoma and Vollering are riding side-by-side and appear to be deep in conversation. I am guessing they are not talking about their respective holiday plans.

94km to go: This is a horrible stage design, in a way. Horrible in the sense of cruel on these fatigued riders. But I guess it’s tough at the top.

95.5km to go: Niewiadoma, Vollering, Reusser, Longo Borghini are all up in the front group.

Longo Borghini is 3min 05 sec down on GC: 1min 53sec behind third-placed Reusser. It’s difficult to see her making up that much time today but you never know.

96km to go: An infernal pace is being set at the front. There are groups all over the road. Dani Rowe reckons that a lot of riders are going to miss the time cut today.

97km to go: Vollering is prominent at the front of the bunch.

At the end of that interview a while ago, she said that attack is always the best form of defence.

Niewiadoma moves towards the front of the main bunch.

98km to go: Straight on to the first ascent of the Col d’Eze. Lidl-Trek are prominent at the front, including Lorena Wiebes in green.

The riders are on the road and we are nearly off and racing on stage nine.

“I have a lot of respect for Kasia,” says Vollering on TNT Sports, before explaining at length her lack of respect for Kasia.

“I was a bit disappointed when I saw her interview directly after the finish, because she really attacked my teammate [Célia Gery], and I think it’s not so fair to do that so high in emotions.

“I didn’t forget what she did when I was on the ground two years ago, so if she’s speaking about fair play, I think she’s not the one that can really say something about that. I don’t blame her … in the end, we all forget, we are still human …

“Célia is still so young, she is getting so much shit thrown at her now. It’s not fair in my eyes. She’s giving her all, she is so young, so talented, and we need to protect her … I find it really sad that we attack each other like this after the finish line.

“Nothing to lose,” says Niewadoma. “A lot to gain. It’s been difficult, very hot Tour … a lot of teams want to go all-out.

“Honestly it’s not a lot of frustration [about yesterday]. In retrospect, there is nothing I can change about the past, it’s only to focus on what’s next.”

The riders are obliged to climb 2,100m in 99km of racing today.

The climbing is going to be brutal, but I suspect the descending may prove to be key. Those GC contenders will be on the limit.

“I don’t think Niewiadoma has the respect from Vollering,” emails A.M Rossell. “Kasia was damn lucky to win the Tour in 2024, Vollering was extremely pissed at what happened and does not see Niewiadoma as her equal. As for the scandal from yesterday, Vollering was so much stronger than ELB and Niewiadoma was gassed. Actually a common tactic is for the teammate to let go of their leader’s wheel at the start of a leader’s attack to force the opponent to go the long way round. It’s nothing new, and Niewiadoma should have been alert to that, and also to being on the wrong side of the wheel going into a sharp corner.”

“The Tour de France Femmes has been fabulous as always,” emails Robin. “And a welcome competitive GC after five men’s grand tours in succession with comfortable victories. I would love to have the entire stage on TV but I think we take for granted what a recent development that has been in the men’s race and the complexity and cost of TV coverage. Hoping to see Demi take the GC today and full stages broadcast next year!”

“Conditions are super-hard,” says Rolf Aldag, Canyon/SRAM sports director: “It feels like you have a hot soup at 40C, and that is how the bottle is going to taste after five minutes.

“We are not here to hang on. We will try to force things. Marlen wants to defend her podium … Elisa wants to be on the podium … it’s going to be exciting racing.

“We all put it [the controversy between Niewiadoma and Gery] behind us … it’s an opportunity … people wrote us off at 1min 17sec [behind in GC] … now we are 8sec … why wouldn’t we be optimistic?”

Lars Boom, the FDJ United-Suez DS, talks to TNT Sports about stage nine: “Brutal profile. It’s humid also. It will be key to cool down and stay fresh. It’s a really, really hard day.

“The aim is to defend yellow, but also to attack yellow … to try and win the stage.

“Of course we sometimes will take the risk – for me, Kasia needs to go in the final, or earlier …”

“Yesterday was amazing. We were really happy … to be in yellow was a big surprise … really cool to be part of this team, with the riders and staff.”

“This edition is probably the best I’ve ever seen,” emails Dave.

“Demi Vollering is compulsive watching - sometimes not in a good way. This woman is hard as nails and absolutely driven, seemingly scarily oblivious to pain. The back story of 2024, when she later revealed that she broke her coccyx in the crash on stage 5 - and yet still won the final stage 8 on the Alpe d’Huez, only to succumb by 4 seconds (4 seconds after 8 stages!) to Niewiadoma, is the added spice to today’s race, even without the needle of yesterday’s “blocking” allegations. I have absolutely no idea who will prevail today, so looking forward to it.

”Great to hear too that next year’s Grand Départ will be in the UK, lucky us.”

My take on Gery v Niewiadoma, having seen a couple of replays? Niewiadoma absolutely has a case. It was subtle, but it was deliberate. [In my opinion.]

Vollering, after taking yellow yesterday: “In a stage race you take it day by day … you can be disappointed in the evening.

“But in the morning, you put on a new mask, and you go again.”

Channelling her inner John Terry.

Marc emails: “VIVA KIM LE COURT OUR MAURITIAN HERO.”

Merci.

Regarding the telly coverage: As I understand it, without Zwift’s commitment to sponsor the event, there would be no Tour de France Femmes. Most likely there would still be a one-day nod to women’s cycling instead. (Like La Course.)

ASO don’t generate enough revenue from the event to cover every stage in full (again, this is merely as I understand it) so I guess we should be grateful to Zwift for the ploughing in the cash in the first place.

Could ASO be doing more? If you think so, please mail me and tell me why.

“Have I been affected by the Tour de France Femmes..?” asks Jez.

“In a word - no. Not as much as I would have loved to have been - and it’s ASO’s fault.

“The lack of TV coverage of an exceptional race featuring exceptional athletes, not effectively promoted by its own organisation to an audience that is clearly there and wanting more … in 2026, what possible response is there to this? There must be loads of emails saying the same thing.”

“I have absolutely loved Tour de France Femmes this year, it’s been jam-packed with everything you want from a Tour, drama, suspense and actual competition that’s sorely lacking in the men’s edition,” emails Nathan.

“No spoilers tho mate, the missus is dragging me to see Odyssey so will watch tonight!”

Thank you Nathan. Enjoy the film. I will definitely be posting spoilers though, this being a live news blog. Kindly pop back tonight after watching the race on telly! Enjoy!

The first three ascents today are category-two: 7.7km at 5.9% average, cresting at 491m.

The fourth and final ascent is via a different route, a shorter and sharper category-one: 6km at 7.6% average.

The bonification point comes after one climb, after 23.5km of racing. It is going to be flat-out from the start – it is going to be draining to watch, let alone ride – and it promises to be an incredible denouement to a fascinating race for the maillot jaune.

Have you been affected by the Tour de France Femmes? Email me your views on Niewiadoma v Vollering, or anything else.

Catch up on Jeremy Whittle’s stage eight report:

Niewiadoma, yesterday: “They should compete fair play and not look to block me on the barriers because it is so childish. I lost all the respect for them for that.”

Vollering’s response: “I didn’t see anything, I just saw what was in front of me,” she said. “It happened behind me. I don’t have eyes in the back of my head. Celia probably didn’t see Kasia and I’m sure she didn’t do it on purpose. I’m sure Kasia knows deep in her heart that those kinds of things just happen sometimes in racing. It’s the shit part of racing.”