For the second year in this year's Tour de France, Tom Dumoulin finished fourth in a stage when he was part of the big breakaway in stage 9. Praising Tony Martin for his performance, the Dutchman claimed that the chase group was too big to get organized.

Tom Dumoulin has repeated his finishing position from stage seven in taking fourth place on the ninth day of racing at Le Tour de France after a long day out in the breakaway.

Dumoulin was part of a large group that took off in pursuit of two leaders but his group never ended up seeing the front of the race as Tony Martin (Omega Pharma – Quickstep) attacked with over 50km remaining to plough on alone and take an impressive solo victory. Dumoulin's group group was whittled down across the six classified climbs of the stage and swallowed up De Marchi who had been deserted by Martin leaving the group to race for second.

Dumoulin moved up in the final few kilometres to contest the sprint and came over the line in fourth, 2’45″ behind Martin out front but over four minutes ahead of the yellow jersey group.

At the back of the race Marcel Kittel was supported by Tom Veelers and Cheng Ji in the fight to get home in the tie limit with the grupetto. They managed to limit the loses to the stage winner to just over 21 minutes.

Roy Curvers said after the stage: “It was a tough day hanging on as much as I could. I managed to hang on to the bunch until the last climb so I was happy to have a good day without too much stress.

“I’m still feeling fairly fresh each day – good enough to keep coming out fighting each day. The three stage wins have been great for the team morale and also seeing Tom Dumoulin doing great things keeps everyone motivated. Even yesterday when we rode to position Tom before the climb and today to help him be in the breakaway as best we could. Working as a team like this keeps everyone close.”

Koen De Kort added: “It was alright today for me personally, but it did hurt a bit at the beginning especially. Once the break went it relaxed and I was still in the main group and after that it was just a good tempo all the way to the finish.

“Everyone is starting to get tired – I think the whole bunch is starting to get tired, and so am I. Tomorrow is going to be another tough day so once that is out of the way it is the rest day. I haven’t looked past the rest day yet really but I will see what is coming up after that and see what we can do.”

Fourth place finisher Tom Dumoulin himself said: “It was another hard race today but I wanted to be in the break from the start so the team helped support me to make this possible. Tony rode a really strong race out front today and even though we were working hard behind he managed to keep pulling away, not only on the flats but also on the climbs.

“We had our own race behind but the group was too big so everyone started to look at each other. I was on my own so it wasn’t up to me to do the chasing. Fourth again though is not bad and I hope that I will have another opportunity to challenge for a stage win.”

Team Giant-Shimano coach Marc Reef gave his thoughts on the stage: “Tom fought hard to get in the break early in the stage so it was good for him and for his confidence to make the move.

“Behind the race out front the guys had to work hard at the back of the race too. Marcel, Cheng and Tom V moved to the grupetto on the first climb of the day meaning that they had to work all day to make sure they made the time cut. It wasn’t an easy stage by any means for them but they managed to finish with around five minutes to spare.

“The morale is still good though after a hard week of racing. The guys have needed to stay focused since stage one and the focus is now on making the rest day then moving on from there.”