Jonas Abrahamsen is not afraid of the big mountains coming up in the second week: "I will try to keep it as long as possible and try to find the climbing legs"

The dust has settled in Troyes both figuratively and literally and it's much to everyone's surprise, it's the big guy from Uno-X Mobility Jonas Abrahamsen who controls the situation in the King of Mountains classification as we head into the first rest day of this year's Tour de France.

Abrahamsen's lead ahead of the ninth stage was comfortable enough that the Norwegian could've taken a day off and save the horsepowers in his legs for the second week. But that isn't the 28-year-old's style, as he was once again seen on attack both at the start and in the final parts of the stage. "It’s the rest day tomorrow so I tried to get in the breakaway," he expains.

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His teammate Rasmus Tiller was part of the late move with the likes of Mathieu van der Poel and Biniam Girmay which tried to close the gap to the front. Without success. Abrahamsen still appreciated his colleague's effort: "It was a great ride from Rasmus today. We tried and hopefully we can get a victory another day."

And so the dream week for Abrahamsen comes to a wrap: "This week has been amazing for me. I’m so happy to have the climbers jersey from day one and the green jersey and second place on the second stage. It’s so, so big for me. I can’t believe it."

Will be see the Nowergian who is listed at 78 kilograms continue to fight for the Polka Dot jersey next week? "Keeping the polka dot jersey? It is a hard day on Stage 11 and hopefully I can go in the breakaway there and get some points, but after the 14th stage I think it is not possible anymore, with a lot of first category climbs and that’s not so good for me. But we will see, I will still try to keep it as long as possible and try to find the climbing legs."

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