Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) was amazingly strong in the finale of today's 14th stage of the Tour de France but the Swiss was narrowly edged on the line by Matteo Trentin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step). Having been denied his first ever individual Tour stage win, Albasini was frustrated at the finish but hoped to be able to see the positives later in the day.

Michael Albasini is known as one of the best breakaway artists of the peloton, having taken wins at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Volta a Catalunya, Paris-Nice, Vuelta a Espana and Tour de Suisse by getting into the right move. Until now a Tor win has escaped him but today he was determined to fill that gap in his palmares.

During an extremely hectic opening of the stage - the riders covered no less than 48km during the first hour - the veteran managed to get himself into the decisive 18-rider move and so the first part of his mission was accomplished. What was left was to get the better of 17 very strong companions and he got oh so close.

Julien Simon (Sojasun) appeared to take the spoils when he got away on his own, building up a 40-second gap over the chase group which had no cooperation at all. However, the Frenchman faded and as they passed the flamme rouge, Albasini, Marcus Burghardt (BMC) and Simon Geschke (Argos-Shimano) bridged the gap.

Burghardt fell off but was replaced by Jan Bakelants (Radioshack) in the very hectic finale. Behind, Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) buried himself to get back in contention and sensing the capture, Albasini opened a long sprint.

However, Matteo Trentin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) had played it calm, staying in the wheel all the time and when the Italian put down the hammer, it was a little bit too much for the Swiss. Trentin narrowly edged him out and so he had to settle for second.

For a rider with Albasini's palmares, the result was not what he had aimed for.

“For the moment, there is a lot of frustration,” he said. “Maybe after dinner, I can feel a little proud of my performance today, but when you get so close to a win at the Tour de France, the first few moments after will be a lot of frustration.”

“There was a lot of headwind in the finish straight,” he added. “I went too early. The timing would have been right without the wind. It was too soon with it.”

Albasini had to play it smart as there were several teams with more than one rider in the breakaway. Hence, he had been reluctant to take responsibility for the chase of Simon.

“It wasn’t up to me to chase him,” he explained. “I was focused on controlling the group behind. I couldn’t take responsibility to chase him down, too. He was riding really strong. It was close, but all our attacks brought him back.”

Knowing that the group was too big to control, Albasini had already attacked - unsuccessfully - with 24km to go.

“It was hard for me when the attacks started because I had no teammates,” he said. “I attacked first because I thought maybe I could make the group smaller.”

Sports director Matt White fully understood Albasini's disappointment.

“It was a good ride by Albasini, but I understand why he’s disappointed," he said "It’s frustrating to come so close.”  

Albasini's attack had been part of the pre-race tactics as several riders had been asked to ride offensively.

“We knew it was likely that the break would stay away today,” he said. “We had a number of options. Cam Meyer, Simon Clarke, Simon Gerrans and Michael Albasini were all given the chance to get in there.”

“There were a lot of tired sprinters out there, so the bunch sprint wasn’t forced,” he added. “The peloton was happy to let the break go to the line.”

“Albasini is very, very fast. We have a lot of faith in him. He’s won many times from a group of that size in the technical sort of final we had today. He was the perfect guy to have in the breakaway.”

Albasini and the rest of the Orica-GreenEdge team will probably take a back seat in tomorrow's 15th stage which finishes at the top of the feared Mont Ventoux. Starting at 14.00, you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.