"This was a good day for us. 30 seconds to BMC is a good result, and when the first climb comes on Tuesday the individual race will begin. The first week was extremely difficult and extremely stressful, but we came out ahead today."

Those were the words of Astana Manager Giuseppe Martinelli after stage nine at the Tour de France. Astana Pro Team finished fifth in a hilly team time trial on Sunday, 35 seconds behind Team BMC from the United States with an average speed of 51.168km/h.

Astana Pro Team leader Vincenzo Nibali remains in 13th overall, but will see many changes as non-climbers in the Top-10 fall away from the overall classification on Tuesday when racing resumes in the Pyrenees after a rest day on Monday. After nine days of racing, and a slight turn of bad luck that included two crashes and days of bad weather, Nibali has a 2:22 deficit to race leader and Yellow Jersey holder Chris Froome of Great Britain.

"No one can say that the team was super, but it was not bad," Nibali said. "We have made mistakes in the corners and it may be that two of our riders were not at the desired level.

"Clearly thing did not go well for the first part of the Tour. I imagined it to have been different, but now another Tour starts in the mountains where we will face the first long climbs.

"In Pyrenees I have to be with the best. If not the Tour will end for me."