Rui Costa finished today's dramatic stage of the Tour de France in the same time as Tejay van Garderen and Alejandro Valverde and the world champion was satisfied with the outcome. Unfortunately, his teammate Maximiliano Richeze crashed for the third time in the race and has had to abandon.

Rui Costa went into today's stage on the cobbles with a slight leg injury and feared that months of preparation could be destroyed by bad luck. He managed to save the day as he finished in the same group as Alejandro Valverde and Tejay van Garderen.

Not having lost all his GC options, the world champion was satisfied with his race.

"Today I have to be satisfied with my performance," he said. "To get through unscathed was my first goal. On such a course and in such difficult conditions, you can lose everything. Froome's crash proved that and I must say that he has been taken out of the game in the wrong way. He did not deserve that amount of bad luck and I wish him a speedy recovery.

"My second goal was to not lose too much ground to the GC riders. I think that I accomplished that as well and apart from Nibali who did a great number and deserves my congratulations and admiration, I managed to gain a bit of time on Contador. 

"I have to thank my teammates, in particular to Oliveira who escorted me to the end on the sections. Tomorrow is another day and I hope that the worst is now behind us. To be at the start is already a victory."

Davide Cimolai and Chris Horner were both involved in minor crashes but unfortunately Maximilano Richeze crashed for the third time in the race. He has a wound on his knee that required stitches and won't take the start tomorrow.