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Tour de France Daily | Stage 9 | Albanese attacks

Italian launches late-race move to finish the second fastest stage in Tour history

July 13, 2025

For a moment, it looked like Vincenzo Albanese might pull it off.

The Italian went for a final-kilometer flyer at the finish of the second-fastest stage in Tour history. Vincenzo had finished ninth in the bunch kick on stage 8 the day before and reckoned that his best chance to win Stage 9 was to get a jump on the sprinters under the red kite marking one kilometer to go. Just as the break was about to be caught, Vincenzo took off up the right side of the peloton and got a good gap. This time, the cards didn’t fall in his favor, but he played his own hand right and was caught.

Vincenzo’s EF Education-EasyPost teammates rolled in behind him, still buzzing after one of the fastest, most hectic stages in Tour de France history. They’d covered the 174.1 kilometers from Chinon to Châtearoux at 50.013 km/hr.

All day, they had made the right moves in the crosswinds and had numbers in front echelon after front echelon. After the finish, they rolled straight to the hotel to recover as fast as possible for tomorrow. Stage 10 is the next great chance in this Tour de France for us.

Read our riders’ thoughts from the finish of stage 9 of the 2025 Tour de France.

Vincenzo Albanese

It was a very difficult stage right from the start with all the wind all day. In the finale, there was a lot of wind and a very strong break. With a rider like Van der Poel out front, it was going to be very difficult to bring him back. But the speed made it less hectic than the Grand Départ.

After the last corner, I saw my chance. I knew it was going to be very difficult. In the sprint, I am not as fast as Merlier or Milan or the other pure sprinters. So I said to myself, I would rather try something different.

I saw that the last kilometers went uphill, and I tried. It was on instinct, but it didn't go.

Tomorrow, I will try to take it as easy possible. We have Ben and Neilson and Alex. I will help them and focus on the coming days. I like the stage into Toulouse.

Kasper Asgreen

It was good fun. It was good that there were some echelons to get the breakaway back. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure they would've made it. It was a nervous day again.

Michael Valgren

It was a really fast day. I reckon it was the fastest stage I have in my done in my 150 or so Tour stages. We were over 50 kilometers per hour. It was hectic and stressful. That pretty much sums up the first week of Tour de France. It has been chaotic. We had to stay focused, just not to crash, and stay on the wheels, stay in the front, and fight for position.

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FRTour de France
Jul. 05, 2025 – Jul. 27, 2025
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21
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Kasper Asgreen

In his first year in EF Education-EasyPost pink, Danish classics star Kasper Asgreen wants to add to his impressive list of victories. He has already notched a Giro d’Italia stage win to his tally, which includes the Ronde van Vlaanderen, E3 SaxoBank Classic, and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, as well as a stage at the Tour de France and four Danish time trial titles.

He joined our team because he was impressed with our squad’s attacking style. That’s how Kasper loves to race, too – when the peloton explodes, and he has to make split-second decisions on the fly, pick his moment to go, and then ride with everything he has to the line, he comes into his own. That’s why he loves the spring classics and hard breakaways.

Kasper learned how to race when he was a kid in Denmark, where he started out riding for the local club in Kolding, the small university city where he now lives with his wife and which he will always call home. Before he took up cycling, Kasper rode horses. From the age of four, he competed in dressage. He still draws on his childhood equestrian experience now as a pro bike racer. It taught him discipline: the value of showing up and putting in the work no matter what.

Bike racing was tough for him at first. Kasper didn’t win a race for his first three years. He loved the sport nonetheless and was soon making fast progress. Now, he is one of the best one-day racers in the world.

Still, Kasper’s love of the sport is what drives him. Being a pro comes with pressures and hard times, but he knows that it is a privilege to be a bike racer. He races better when he is enjoying the sport, and he enjoys the sport most on a winning team.

That’s what we’re bringing to the 2025 Tour de France. Kasper Asgreen is raring to race.

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Vincenzo Albanese

Italian powerhouse Vincenzo Albanese is excited to step up his game and to add to the solid list of results he has earned during his first eight years as a pro with some big wins in his first season in our signature pink.

He already got a huge one on stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse.

Vincenzo lives in the hills around Florence but is most at home when he is racing over the Belgian cobbles, rattling up bergs and sprinting into corners in the wind. He is a strong asset for us during the spring classics. In 2024, Vincenzo finished in the top ten at 19 races, including the E3 Saxo Classic, Binche-Chimay-Binche, and the Circuit Franco-Belge. Earlier in his career, he won the Trofeo Matteotti and a stage of the Tour du Limousin.

He has been racing since he was six years old and can navigate a peloton like it is his second nature. As a U23, Vincenzo won seven races, including a stage at the Tour de l’Avenir and the Trofeo Matteotti, a professional race he rode with the Italian national team.

That performance earned him his first contract and kick started his racing career. Vincenzo has since developed into a consummate professional. He is a consistent performer who is ready to work for his teammates across all terrain from the start to the end of the season. He has ridden the Giro d’Italia four times and, though he loves his national grand tour, now wants to bring his three-week racing strength to the Tour de France to help his new EF Education-EasyPost teammates and go for a stage win.

This summer, he will get his chance. At the age of 28, Vincenzo will make his Tour de France debut. It’s a dream come true for him – and he is determined to make the most of it.

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Michael Valgren

Michael Valgren returned to the WorldTour in a big way in 2024. In his first grand tour back after a career-threatening injury, he put in a powerful performance at the Giro d’Italia, finishing second and fourth on stages and riding strong for the whole three weeks. This year, he wants to continue on that trajectory and get back to his winning ways. This is his fifth year on our team and Michael’s 11th year as a pro.

Michael already has eight pro wins to his name, including Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Amstel Gold Race.The races he loves most are the classics. Michael shines on the cobbles and on short, punchy climbs.

He grew up in Østerild, on the west coast of Denmark, and when he was a kid, he would race between towns by the North Sea, pretending that he was in the Tour de France. His favorite road is still the stretch through the dunes between the fishing villages of Klitmøller and Hanstholm, where he got started. He lives in Denmark now with his family and enjoys taking his kids out on the local roads whenever he is home.

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