Many were surprised to see Alejandro Valverde suddenly slip back in today's Tour de France stage to Risoul. However, the Spaniard's run of bad luck in the race continued as a tourch of wheels with Thibaut Pinot had destroyed his gears.

A critical moment saved, a GC fight that shrinks. Alejandro Valverde is out of the Alps in second place overall in the Tour de France after his biggest suffering so far in this year's Grande Boucle, a struggle in the last 3km up Risoul (Cat-1) after 177 kilometers including the Lautaret (Cat-1) and the Izoard (HC), the 'ceiling' of the French grand tour.

A long breakaway of 17 riders including Jesús Herrada - his second real attempt of the race, reaching more than five minutes on top of the Lautaret to get almost caught  on the lower slopes of Risoul - always kept Movistar Team in the front of the race, while the likes of Izagirre, Gadret, Rojas, Plaza and Visconti protected Valverde on the first two climbs. A split in the downhill of the Izoard, which Valverde made by sticking to Bardet, Péraud and Nibali, isolated him briefly from Gadret and Izagirre, whom he found again later and rode until halfway through the final ascent. There, an attack by Nibali and the response by Valverde, together with the rest of the favourites, anticipated the difficulties.

Valverde, who suffered a mechanical setback after a slight, unintended touch of wheels with Pinot (FDJ), could not follow neither him nor Bardet or Van Garderen, losing 34" at the finish. The bad moment does not take the Movistar Team's GC contender out of the place he held atop Chamrousse, yet makes the fight for the overall podium closer: 13" on Bardet (ALM), 29" over Pinot (FDJ) and 1'12" ahead of Van Garderen (BMC) with seven stages remaining. Sunday will bring a flat day (222km) from Tallard to Nîmes, suited for breakaways and sprinters, before Monday's second and final rest day.

"It's true that I'm still in 2nd place, but it was hard today," he said. "In a swerve with 3k or 3.5k to go, Pinot accidentally touched my gear with his front wheel. It didn't work well, it was jumping from one ring to another and I had to climb on a big gear, I was super stuck. It wasn't a particularly bad day for me, but not good either - still, we got over it with not much damage.

"Nibali is clearly the strongest, but all the rest of us are very close to each other. I took some time yesterday and they did the same with me today: that's cycling. We must carry on - there's still a lot left and we're still here.

"Of course it was hard today but I rode well yesterday and made a difference. That's  the Tour. I didn't crack. As I said, I had a small problem with Pinot and I could not receive assistance the way I needed and as there was a long stretch on the flat, it was hard. Nibali is the strongest for sure. He's the strongest but others are very close. Yes, my rivals for the podium are Pinot, Bardet but also Van Garderen."