One day after hsi big coup that saw him move into third overall, Tiago Machado found himself on the ground after a bad crash in today's big mountain stage of the Tour de France. Having originally decided to abandon, he changed his mind and fought his way to the finish alongside teammate Andreas Schillinger. Despite missing the time cut, the pair have been allowed to stay in the race.

Team NetApp-Endura continues to put in a good performance at its Tour de France premiere. Leopold König showed his form on the tenth stage with the finish atop La planche des Belles Filles with an eighth place finish. The 26-year-old Czech is now 21st overall. The 161.5 kilometer long stage which started in Mulhouse was overshadowed by the crash of 28-year-old Portugese rider Tiago Machado around 100 kilometers before the finish. The bad luck caught him only one day after his successful escape and the jump to third place overall, and he reached the finish line, accompanied by teammate Andreas Schillinger, 43:06 down. That put both NetApp riders outside the time limit, but the jury allowed them to stay in the race.

"First off, we are very happy that both of our guys are still in the race," sports director Enrico Poitschke said. "Tiago’s crash is  a mystery to us. He crashed alone and so badly that he wanted to abandon the race, sat in the ambulance and we had packed his things. Then he wanted to continue.

"It was a difficult decision for us. Should we let another rider wait for him, although it seemed unlikely they would make the time limit over the remaining 100km? We decided to do it and were lucky that the race jury decided as they did. The Tour is usually very strict about such cases. But maybe the happenings of the last few days have led them to decide in our favor.

"Of course all of that messed up our plans for the race. Except for Jan, Leo, Bartosz and David, all the guys had to put in a lot of  power in the chase, so that they all lost time.

"The four guys up front rode a good race and supported Leo well. Leo rode a strong race. It is a super performance to finish a difficult stage in the top eight and proves that our plans can be realized.

"Tomorrow is the first rest day and recovery is important. Then we will have to see. As far as Tiago goes, I don’t think he broke anything and so can keep on. But he has a lot of scrape wounds, and those wounds aren’t easy. But he made it through the day today and so I am sure that he will start the eleventh stage."

Tuesday is the first rest day of the Tour de France. The next stage on Wednesday leads from Besancon south to Oyonnax. The 187.5 kilometers long stage has a difficult finale with four ranked climbs.