Rui Costa was feeling really good in today's first mountain stage of the Tour de France but the world champion was hit by a major setback when he dropped his chain at the bottom of the final climb. Fellow Lampre-Merida captain Chris Horner suffered in the cold and lost contact with the favourites on the penultimate climb.

On the first two climbs in today's first mountain stage of the Tour de France, Rui Costa was riding excellently well, always staying in the front positions while Tinkoff-Saxo split the peloton to pieces. When the peloton hit the final climb, however, the world champion was suddenly off the back.

Costa ended the stage in 12th and moved into 8th overall but his time loss was not caused by bad luck. Instead, he dropped his chain just as the peloton turned onto the final climb which left the Portuguese frustrated as he had felt good all day.

"The stage was very hard," he said. "It is always difficult to ride in rain and cold. Although I do not like to ride in these conditions, my legs were giving me very good feedback, I felt good. Unfortunately I had to deal with this setback that forced me to make a comeback. 

"I had great support from my teammates, with a fantastic Durasek riding at my side on the most challenging climbs."
 

For fellow Lampre-Merida captain Chris Horner, it was a bad day as the American was dropped on the penultimate climb. The American blamed his time loss on the bad weather.

"I suffer a lot on these cold and wet days," he said. "I'm skinny, so my body is affected. That said, the legs were pretty good. I tried to limit the gap to the best riders."