With no GC riders, Orica-GreenEDGE had limited options in today's big Tour de France mountain stage. The team set out with a plan to put Simon Yates into the early break and when that failed, it was all about survival for the Australians.

All eight remaining riders have successfully negotiated the first Alpine stage of the 2014 Tour de France on a brutally hot day on the road.

On a stage poised to sort out the general classification ranks, leader Vincenzo Nibali extended his dominance on the race with a third stage victory at this year’s Tour.

After an animated day yesterday, which saw birthday boy Simon Clarke wear the red most combative numbers on his back during today’s stage, ORICA-GreenEDGE’s safely completed the 197.5km stage, finishing all together 38 minutes 38 seconds behind Nibali.

“The only option we had was to put Simon Yates in the break,” sport director Matt White said.  

“Simon tried on the first climb when the break went but when that didn’t eventuate we didn’t have any other options for today’s stage.

“Everyone survived. Obviously Simon Clarke was pretty fatigued after yesterday’s big effort but everyone got through safely and made it by six or seven minutes before the cut off.

“We live to fight another day.”