Orica-GreenEDGE had a lot of potential winners of today's stage 9 of the Tour de France but when the break took off, none of the had made the selection. Instead, domestique Christian Meier had joined the move by coincidence.

Canadian Christian Meier was ORICA-GreenEDGE’s main player in the action on stage nine of the Tour de France, featuring in a large chase group early in the day’s racing.

Meier, in his Tour de France debut, join a group of 28 riders in pursuit of duo Alessandro De Marchi (CAN) and Tony Martin (OPQ) who escaped after 17km of racing.

Unable to maintain the pace of the group as it hit the main climb, Meier dropped back amongst others, whilst the chase never bridged, Martin attacking De Marchi and riding the final 60km solo to victory.

“It was a pretty manic start to the day,” sport director Matt White said. 

“There were multiple attacks that got brought back and we were present in all of those.

“Christian was helping move the guys around and found himself in the break of the day which wasn’t in the plan, but that is how it eventuated.

“He just ran out of legs when the big moves started on the big climb of the day.”

Australian and Canadian champion’s Simon Gerrans and Svein Tuft, finished in the main bunch, along with Jens Keukeleire, Luke Durbridge and the main general classification riders.

As the race edges closer to the much anticipated rest day on Tuesday, one more hurdle stands in the way. Which according to White, could be the hardest stage of the Tour.

“For us, it is not necessarily a big aim, we are more likely to save some energy to put it to use a little later in the Tour.”