Tony Martin and Mark Cavendish have both had difficult starts to the Tour de France as the German crashed hard in stage one and the Brit suffers from bronchitis. However, both riders felt better in today's third stage and now hope to be able to deliver a solid effort in tomorrow's important team time trial.

As defending world champions in the discipline, the team time trial was a key objective for Omega Pharma-Quick Step prior to the Tour de France but the Belgian team's hopes suffered a huge blow when world time trial champion Tony Martin crashed in stage one. Left with a concussion, a contusion on his left lung, a deep wound on his elbow and several other injuries, the German struggled to survive yesterday's stage but managed to finish safely.

Today the German saw clear improvements as he survived the final climb in a tough, hilly stage and even had power to give teammate and best young rider Michal Kwiatkowski a perfect lead-out, the Pole finishing 4th in the sprint to defend his white jersey. Martin is now optimistic ahead of tomorrow's crucial stage.

"Today I felt better then yesterday," he said. "Of course I'm still not 100 percent, but I'm feeling better than what was expected. Now I hope to get a good night's rest and tomorrow give my best effort to the team for the team time trial. I know how important it is to race hard for the team in this moment. We will do our best to get a good result."

Kwiatkowski was happy to see Martin being on the mend.

"I was really happy to see Tony Martin in the final because that is a really good prognosis before tomorrow," he said. "He crashed so badly in the first stage. I was really happy to see him help me. Actually, all of the guys helped me a lot today. I want to say thank you to them. I had a lot of help from this team, I feel good about this team. I help the other guys and then they help me as well."

"We have many good time trialists on our team," he added "We are the World Champions in this discipline. I will do my best. I think we can have a good result tomorrow. Tony and Gert Steegmans talked to us about the course. It's not really a hard TT, so it fits well for us."

Another rider who has struggled in the early part, is team leader Mark Cavendish. The British sprinter has tried not to reveal the reason for his apparent troubles on the climbs but now admits that he has been suffering from bronchitis. However, he also felt better today than he did yesterday.

"Today I felt a little bit better than yesterday," he said. "Unfortunately last week I had to take antibiotics until this Sunday, due to bronchitis. Now I'm better, even if not 100 percent. We will see day-by-day."

However, the team's bad luck continued today as Niki Terpstra hit the deck in the feed zone. Luckily the Dutchman escaped the incident without any serious injuries.

"I was there at the feed zone trying to take my musette," he said. "Suddenly there was a little swing in the peloton. I fell down and have some bruises on my left knee and on the chest from hitting the ground. It's probably nothing serious and I hope this crash doesn't affect me tomorrow in the team time trial."

With riders like Martin, Peter Velits, Kwiatkowski, Sylvain Chavanel and Terpstra, the team has a formidable line-up for tomorrow's team time trial, and if Martin and Terpstra have recovered well, they could very well take the win. Starting at 15.00 you can follow the entire stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.