Like most of the Frenchmen, Romain Bardet and Jean-Christophe Peraud were among the losers in the first mountain stage of the Tour de France.

"This is not a failure, I am in my place," Peraud said. "I suffered in the heat. The level is very high, I could not follow the best. On a steep climb, I knew it would be complicated. I always struggle with this type of race conditions, like last year in Risoul. The elements did not favour for me.

"We cannot speak about weakness, the leaders are way out of my league. To me, it was not physically possible to follow them in this heat. It is always difficult to ride under such weather conditions."

"You never would like to live a day like that in the Tour de France or in any other races," Bardet said. "It was just the first major climb of the Tour, therefore, we have still other opportunities to be better in moutains. I did not feel fine all the day but I want to stay positive. Tomorrow is another day."

"It was a difficult day because of the heatwave," Alexis Vuillermoz said. "I tried to manage the final climb well and I saw that the GC leaders were having trouble. I was focused on my effort but, suddenly, I felt a side stitch. I do not know if it was because of the heat, the pressure or just the fact that I was tired. My first week was a strain, maybe it is hard to me to move on."

"We expected to be present among the leaders today but our riders were dropped on the final climb like Nibali and Contador," manager Vincent Lavenu said. "I can assure you that they gave the best of themselves. We will need to redefine our objectives but we are not dead. We will fight to put one of our riders in the GC top 10. That is why you can count on us to win some stages next."