"There was a crash in front of us in Rotterdam and that was it. four of us were behind and we never saw the front of the race again."

Those were the words of Astana's Lars Boom after stage two at the Tour de France. Boom and his teammates faced storm winds and bursts of rain across the flat Dutch countryside on Sunday, and the result was a challenging day of racing to support Vincenzo Nibali.

In wind and rain and many traffic islands the main peloton broke into pieces, with Astana Pro Team protecting Nibali succesfully at the front until a crash by riders from other teams isolated Nibali and Jakob Fuglsang from the rest of the squad.

Later Nibali was caught behind another crash on a slippery roundabout and lost momentum briefly, but it was enough to create a gap to the leaders, and the 2014 Tour de France champion found himself chasing alone as the race increased speed. Nibali finished 1:28 behind stage winner Andrei Greipel of Germany, and is now 2:09 behind new race leader Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland. More importantly, Nibali is now more than one minute behind his main rivals with twenty stages to go.

Boom and Astana Pro Team remain optimistic that Monday's very challenging stage into Belgium, with an uphill finish similar to the Spring Ardennes Classic Fleche-Wallonne, and Tuesday's cobblestone stage into France will bring crucial opportunities to climb up in time on General Classification.

“It was a miracle that I didn’t fall myself, but the group broke up after that crash and we were caught behind, niente,” Nibali said.. “We were chasing all day, that’s it.”

“I was in front, I managed to stay upright but what more could I do. Then on top of that, I punctured. We’re racing our bikes, these things happen.

“Fortunately it wasn’t a bad day in terms of legs. You just have to accept these things in cycling.”

“To lose 1:28, it’s certainly a lot of time but there are still a lot of days to come, and tomorrow and the day after that, a lot of things could change,” sports director Guiseppe Martinelli said. “This evening he’ll talk with the team about how to approach tomorrow, but it was a difficult day today. Tonight he’ll be disappointed but tomorrow his morale will already be better. He knows there’s a long way to go.”

“The Mur de Huy is certainly good for us and for Vincenzo. I hope that tomorrow it goes well and he can stay in the thick of the action all day.”