The Tour de France (open in new tab) is brutal. If two of the three under-25s in the lead group on stage 9 on Sunday had reason to be happy with their performances in Larns, the third, 22-year-old Marc Hirschi (Sunweb (open in new tab)), can only be described as a bitter disappointment.

While Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) moved into second place overall and Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) took the stage win, Hirschi's third place (his second podium of the competition) came after a 90km breakaway group collapsed just before the finish.

After being caught in a GC group consisting of Bernal, Pogachar, Primozh Roglic (Jumbo Visma), and Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren), Hirschi, a former U-23 world champion, held on hard and sprinted for the finish.

However, despite strong acceleration at the line, he was overtaken by the Slovenian sprint sandwich.

"It was a really tough day," Hirschi said after a lonely day in which he briefly trailed by 4 minutes, only to be 15 seconds down on the climb to the Col de Marie Blanc, be blown away on the descent, and be caught 2 km before the finish.

"Today kind of sucked because it wasn't like yesterday where it gave the breakaway group more time to get going," said the Italian. 'Certainly, I'm very happy with my performance and the result. But it was a close race both times and I came up short again.

"I had time and patience on the last climb. It was all for nothing.

Hirschi was already part of one breakaway (open in new tab) on the way to Nice for stage 2 (open in new tab). He escaped with Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Julien Alaphlippe (Dečuninck-Quick Step), but had to settle for second place there as well.

As for Sunday's Pyrenees, he said, "In the last few kilometers, the team car told me to wait. So I knew I had a chance to win even if they caught up to me. But you have to do your best."

Team Sunweb coach Matt Winston was more upbeat about his young charge's run.

"I think it was a great run overall. He comes from our development team and has really made great progress.

"He's super disappointed, but he's shown a lot of potential for the future."