One day before the second rest day, the ninth stage of the Tour de France brought de riders over four categorized climbs in the heart of the Swiss Alps before a finish on French territory in Châtel, at an altitude of 1300 meter.
Three days after his crash and stitches in his knee, Kobe Goossens attacked in the beginning of the day. The Belgian rider managed to escape from the peloton, joining a breakaway of 21 riders.
The Tour de France debutant rode in front of the race until the last categorized climb, the Pas de Morgins, where he was caught by a reduced peloton with the yellow jersey and his teammate Louis Meintjes.
The GC leader of the Belgian team accompanied the best climbers of this Tour de France and reached the finish in the slipstream of the yellow jersey. This performance enables Meintjes to climb again in the classification and occupy seventeenth place after nine stages.
« To race through the mountains here in the Tour de France, with all those fans along the roads, it’s a dream come true. It was impressive to experience it in the breakaway. Actually, the plan was to take it easy today in order to continue recovering from my crash of three days ago. But I felt a lot better in the beginning of the stage, so I helped Georg Zimmermann to follow the race moves. After two attempts, I was part of a strong breakaway. It was a difficult day, but it was a mental boost after two complicated days. I love the Alps, I worked so hard to be ready for the mountains. But two days before, my knee had to be stitched. It was of course a difficult setback. Today I gained confidence, I can again look ahead. After the rest day this Monday, I hope to have my full strength back. »
