Romain Bardet showed his first signs of weakness in the Tour de France when he struggled on the Port de Bales earlier today. As his teammate Jean-Christophe Peraud moved closer to the podium, the young Frenchman admits that he may now have to work for his teammate.

Left 1:50 behind Thibaut Pinot in Bagneres-de-Luchon, Romain Bardet is now 5th overall, 6:40 behind Vincenzo Nibali and 1:34 behind Pinot.

"I was fine during most of the stage and I cracked in the last climb," he said. "I was too euphoric at the bottom and I faltered in the ascent. You must learn to manage your hard times.

"I want to thank the whole of the AG2R team for helping me to not panic because mentally, it was very hard. Samuel Dumoulin waited for me, we managed to limit the damage in the descent. When your idea was to attack it's very difficult to take. 

"Even if I lost a battle, there are still two great stages in the Pyrenees. I might have a little bit more freedom for tomorrow's stage which suits me well. I hope I have better legs than today.

"I think that Jean-Christophe (Peraud) can make it on the podium this year. We're going to discuss it with the technical staff but it's a true possibility [that I will have to work for him]."

“Clearly, Romain didn't have a great day,” said manager Vincent Lavenu. “Pinot attacked, and Romain wasn't able to follow. He's lost the white jersey, but that's how it is: tomorrow's another day, and perhaps Pinot, or others, won't go so well. Jean-Christophe had a great day, but it wasn't such a good one for Romain. Each day, there's a new surprise, but that's just how things go at the Tour de France.

“Pinot is a fantastic rider, so his attack today wasn't a surprise to us. He also attacked in the Alps, but today he was stronger, and that's just how it is. You win some, you lose some, but you have to be able to accept defeat.

“But Romain has already shown that he is world-class, despite the fact that he's still so young. He wasn't the only rider to have a bad day – Tejay van Garderen [BMC], Bauke Mollema [Belkin] and Jurgen Van Den Broeck [Lotto-Belisol] all also lost time. Romain will now recover from today and we'll see what happens tomorrow.

“Jean-Christophe is certainly in a very good position, especially ahead of the time trial."