One day after Blel Kadri's magnificent stage victory, Ag2r were again on the attack in stage 9 of the Tour de France. Matteo Montaguti and Mikael Cherel both finished in the top 10 which allowed the team to move up in the teams classification.

Ag2r won the teams classification in the Giro d'Italia and they have done nothing to hide that they hope to repeat the feat in the Tour de France. Yesterday they made a big jump in the standings when Blel Kadri won stage 8 and Jean-Christophe Peraud and Romain Bardet climbed with the best.

Today the team moved into third when Mikael Cherel and Matteo Montaguti went on the attack in stage 9. The duo failed to win the stage, finishing 8th and 5th respectively, but the team now sits in third in the teams classification.

Cherel was pleased to have contributed to the jump after having been suffering from the effects of his crash in stage 1.

"That’s great to be back at the front of the race even if we didn’t fight for the stage win behind an impressive Tony Martin," he said. "My main objective today was to stay alongside Romain (Bardet) and Jean-Christophe (Péraud) but I know that I can have some freedom if the race is tough.

"Romain and Toff (Riblon) encouraged me to break away. That was when I thought I might have a small chance to do something good today. The good news is that we gain a few places in the overall team standings, an objective that is dear to our hearts.”