France’s Jeremy Roy starts a breakaway in the rain of Stage 4 of the 2011 Tour de France. Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images

Jérémy Roy of FDJ found his way onto the fulcrum by the end of Stage 9 of the 2014 Tour de France even as a fellow Frenchman, Tony Gallopin of Lotto-Belisol, took hold of the yellow jersey as overall leader of the tour.

Roy, who finished on the cusp of the fulcrum during Stage 1, has continued to finish near the middle of the pack in successive stages. In 2011, Roy was named most aggressive rider in the Tour de France, in large part due to his success at getting into the breakaways and then attacking his fellow escapees. He also won a stage of Paris-Nice in 2009 and the mountain climbers’ polka dot jersey in Critérium International in 2013.

This first heavily mountainous stage was won by Tony Martin, who got into a two-man break and stayed away for more than 100 kilometers to finish first and alone on the straight-away at Mulhouse. Martin was helped by Astana’s decision not to protect Vincenzo Nibali’s yellow jersey, a strategy that allowed an intermediary group of riders including Gallopin to build a large enough lead that Gallopin became the tour leader on the eve of Bastille Day. Members of Astana apparently assume that they can regain the jersey in the mountainous stages ahead, but letting go of it temporarily lets them off the hook for making pace and chasing breakaways.

Egoitz Garcia Echeguibel of Cofidis withdrew from the tour on Sunday, leaving 183 riders in the race. Heinrich Haussler of IAM Cycling finished on the fulcrum for the stage.

Edward “Ted” King of Cannondale remains the Lanterne Rouge.