Apart from Tony Martin’s stage win, the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team could also celebrate the achievements of Michal Kwiatkowski and Sylvain Chavanel.

The 23-year old Pole was the GC rider who lost least time to yellow jersey and stage runner-up Chris Froome, finishing fifth and being 1:19 minutes slower than the overall leader. The French ITT champion posted the seventh-best time of the day.

With his splendid effort, Kwiatkowski also took back the white jersey from Nairo Quintana (Movistar) who finished in 54th place on a day that wasn’t suited to him.

“I’m very happy with my performance,” said the new leader of the youth classification. “Today I did a really good ITT, and I’m also happy to get back the white jersey. It would be nice to stay in the top-10 overall, but I will take it day by day. The third week is one for the climbers, it’s very hard and I think Nairo [Quintana] will be hard to beat. But I won’t give up until we are in Paris.”

“We want to keep working on the flat stages for Mark [Cavendish], and then see how it goes for me. Even if I lose my top-10 spot I can still learn from the best. I want to improve everywhere. This Tour de France has already taught me a lot and I will come out of it stronger. Hopefully it will be a big step in my career.”