Few would have tipped Tiago Machado to be third overall at the end of the two first mountain stages but that is the position for the Portuguese after stage 9. The NetApp rider made it into today's breakaway and rode hard to maximize his gains but also knows that he is likely to lose ground to the best riders tomorrow.

Tiago Machado and his Team NetApp – Endura landed a coup on the ninth stage of the Tour de France. The 28-year-old Portuguese was part of a break away that came to the finish in Mulhouse with a gap of five minutes. The 10th rank as the stage result was enough to move to the third place in the overall rankings. Yet another German rider was able to score the stage win. Time Trial World Champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma Quick Step) went clear with 60km to go and reached the finish line with a lead of 2:45 minutes over the chasing group of 20 riders, including Machado. It took another five minutes before the peloton arrived in Mulhouse.

“Obviously, I am quite happy. It’s something special to have such a great position in the Tour de France. But I am also aware that this is most likely for the moment only and that every day could bring a change. We definitely wanted to be in the group today – either with Leo or myself. Leo’s group wasn’t good to go, so I tried. I was sure that I could move up in the GC but I never thought that I could make it to a podium place”, says Machado in the finish.

“We agreed this morning, that we’ll ride aggressively no matter what it takes. Leo and Jose were in the first group, which was neutralized quickly. At the following climb we took our second option with Tiago. It’s just amazing that he made this big move in the GC and we as a team are really happy to be in such a good position now at the Tour. But we are quite realistic what this means, simply because it’s all part of our race strategy that covers three weeks. With the result today we took some pressure from Leo who still has to recover from yesterday’s crash. Tomorrow there will be another tough stage and we just hope that all riders recover well, because we want to show our active side again”, says Sport Director Enrico Poitschke.