Fabian Cancellara was caught in the nasty hi-speed crash during the Monday’s third stage, and although he was able to rejoin the race when it restarted, it was clear he was riding with too much discomfort and was soon left behind, regulating his reign in yellow to one day.

Cancellara fought to stay with the peloton until the first climb where he had little choice but to ride his own pace to the end. Finally, after some medical exams, he had suffered transverse process fractures of two vertebrae his lower back.

"I'm feeling sad and I have a lot of pain, even more than Monday. I could kind of sleep but when I woke up I felt like a truck was running over me, I have pain everywhere. I leave the Tour and lose the yellow jersey, and I couldn't even defend it [after the crash]. The only chance I had was to finish the race and honour as best I could this jersey, out of the respect I have for it."

Trek Factory Racing manager Luca Guercilena hopes to see again Cancellara on the bike as soon as possible, but Spartacus will have to be patient. "The last time we had a bit of time to get him back and ready in time for the Tour so we could allow Fabian to get back up to speed with a lot of calm," Guercilena told Cyclingnews. "It's clear that there's just August and September left in the season and time is going by quickly."