Vincenzo Nibali got safely through another day in the Tour de France and now goes into the first big mountain stage of the race with a solid 2.23 lead over Richie Porte. However, the Italian will take any oppourtunity he sees to increase his overall lead.

Until now, Vincenzo Nibali has seemed to be in a class of his own in the Tour de France mountains and so it is no wonder that he goes into tomorrow's first big Alpine stage with plenty of confidence. With a 2.23 gap over Richie Porte, he can allow himself to ride defensively but he doesn't plan to do so.

To get to the bottom of the Alps, however, he had to negotiate today's tricky stage and even though it may have looked easy on television, it was a pretty hard affair.

“It's been the typical flat French stage, very difficult with a lot of curves and downhills, and a bunch sprint at the end," he said. "We have controlled in the early part of the race.

"Tomorrow, it'll be another story. I didn't go to reconnoitre those climbs in the Alps. I'm more afraid of the second Alpine stage than the first one. In the first one, everybody's got energy. But the second one requires more efforts than the first one.

"We'll handle the race with the team. It's not easy to control. I'm sure our rivals will try to attack but on the other hand, if I can gain some seconds, I'll go for it. Attacks from far out can happen, but whatever happens tomorrow, the Tour de France will not end tomorrow.

"I'll have to evaluate the strength of my adversaries and consider every race situation. I'm not worried because I know I'll be able to count on the support of Jakob Fuglsang, Tanel Kangert and Michele Scarponi. They can give a lot in the climbs!

"I'm happy with my weight now but, as my team doctor said, it's been difficult to reach that weight. The doctor and I had the same race program this year. He always put me on the scale to control my weight and said: ‘Vincenzo, you have to work'. I've made it. I arrived at the Tour with the same weight I had for my big successes at the Giro and the Vuelta. Hypothetically, this weight is 64 kilos."

“Tomorrow we expect a big stage, and with the heat we will really have to make sure to get enough water and minerals to be able to do the extra work," his teammate Andriy Grivko added.

Nibali also faced his first questions about doping, with several journalists questioning his decision to join Astana.

“Astana is a team that’s invested a lot in an Italian group, precisely because they wanted to give it credibility and because they wanted to change the whole group," he said. “They didn’t just choose me, they also brought in [long-term coach] Paolo Slongo. I’d like to remind everybody that I worked with him when I was 17 years old in the national team, together with Antonio Fusi.”

“The mistakes that were made in the past were many and made by many riders, and it’s good to leave everything in the past and look ahead with a new generation. There are many new young riders and we need to give them space because they’re showing that they really want to change cycling. We’re showing it with the biological passport with the random tests at home, so we can’t say that cycling today hasn’t changed.

“Picking a team like Astana was certainly an important step for me as it gave me the chance to build a group to tackle the biggest races, like the Giro, the Tour and the Vuelta.”

“We still have some isolated incidents now because unfortunately, the mother of the idiot is always pregnant. I can’t be the spokesman for the whole peloton, certainly, but the goodwill to improve and do something more is certainly exceptional.”