Ganna fifth as team push hard on stage nine

Filippo Ganna sprinted to fifth place at the Tour de France as he led the peloton home on stage nine.

In sweltering conditions, Netcompany INEOS took on the heat-shortened stage, with an aggressive performance across the 154.6 kilometres.

After a number of early breakaway attempts, the team then set about trying to bring the remaining escapees back in a bid to set up Ganna at the finish in Ussel.

Ganna eventually crossed the line ahead of green jersey holder Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), but a tantalising six seconds short of the breakaway. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin - Premier Tech) held on to take the victory in the four-up sprint.

Kevin Vauquelin and Tobias Foss combined on the run-in in a bid to shut down the remnants of the day's main breakaway. A high pace early on saw a number of moves try and fail to go clear, with Netcompany INEOS full of attacking intent. Vauquelin, Ganna, Dorian Godon and Michal Kwiatkowski were all involved in breakaway attempts, before Foss did eventually push clear in a group of 16 with 90km to go.