"The attacks are coming - I'm ready to make them."

Those were the words of Vincenzo Nibali after stage fourteen at the Tour de France. Nibali finished 24th on Saturday, 4:45 behind stage winner Steve Cummings of Great Britain, and moved up one spot in General Classification from 9th to 8th overall, 8:17 behind race leader Chris Froome, also of Great Britain.

Nibali has regained form and a fighting spirit after a series of bad luck, crashes and extreme weather that marked the first two weeks of racing.

Saturday's stage raced ahead of a giant thunderstorm through the beautiful Gorges du Tarn, a 53km canyon popular for its outdoor tourism halfway between Lyon and Montpelier in the south of France. Rain never quite caught the Tour de France, but President Francois Hollande visited the finish to see an early breakaway climb the steep 4km Côte de la Croix Neuve and finish ahead of the main peloton.

Andrei Grivko escaped into the breakaway and worked to keep pressure off of his teammates, leaving Jakob Fuglsang, Michele Scarponi and Tanel Kangert to defend Nibali until the base of the final climb.

Nibali attacked with 3km to go, finding strength, good luck and teamwork all in his favor ahead of seven remaining stages at the 2015 Tour de France.

"I attacked because I was fine," he told Rai. "I accelerated and followed Quintana. Then he got a small gap in the final kilometre and I was dropped. I had to go at my own pace from there so I made the wrong decision.

"It was a hectic stage. I expected attacks in the final from Movistar and Tinkoff in a GC battle on the final climb. Every day we try to move up in GC. in the Alps I will certainly have more chances. Maybe we'll try it from the distance, we will see."