Richie Porte found himself in a dangerous situation in the finale of today's stage 11 of the Tour de France when the peloton split on the final descent. With Vincenzo Nibali and Alejando Valverde both in the front group, the Australian had to rely on teammate Geraint Thomas to avoid an unfortunate time loss.

Richie Porte negotiated a technical finish to stage 11 without issue to retain second place overall at the Tour de France.

The Tasmanian remained towards the front of an ever-reducing peloton and stayed safe on a hair-raising descent into Oyonnax to hold station on the genral classification, two minutes and 23 seconds behind the yellow jersey of Vincenzo Nibali.

The lead group was stretched to breaking point on the run off the Côte d'Échallon but the leaders were all given the same time after Tony Gallopin (Lotto Belisol) narrowly escaped to take the victory.

Geraint Thomas and Mikel Nieve finished with Porte across the line, with Thomas jumping up a place to 13th overall.

The Welshman described a difficult day after the stage, admitting: “Racing again after a rest day was kind of like when you stop for a coffee on a training ride. When you get going again your legs are in bits. I think the majority of the peloton felt like that as well.

"We thought it would be a day for the breakaway and see 10-15 guys go up the road, and then the bunch roll in about 5-6 minutes down, but as it turned out there were narrow roads at the start and Astana blocked it so only three went away. It turned into a really hard day.

“We were racing hard over the last 50km. Garmin really put the hammer down on that first climb, and it was the first day this Tour where we really experienced heat as well. That definitely added to the stress but we’re all in the same boat. I think everyone was suffering in their own little world. It was all right in the end, me and Mikel were around Richie in the final.

“It actually split coming into the finish, but I managed to close that in the last 3-4km to go. It was a bit of a scary moment but I think these sort of days are probably the most dangerous to lose time – little descents and splits mean you can often lose 10-15 seconds – so we’re happy that we’re the same as this morning and it’ll be the same again tomorrow hopefully."

Porte was also happy to come through the day despite a late scare, and revealed how the return of warm weather caused an issue for the peloton.

"The heat has come, which is welcome, but it was cold on Sunday and now it's really hot," said the Tasmanian. "It's another nice stage to get done and Paris is getting a bit closer.

"There was a bit of a gap there in the descent and I got stuck chasing it, but Geraint Thomas was really good there. He came back and pulled it back together.

"That's racing. The gaps happened in front of me and I had to chase, but it's good to get that one done and hopefully get through tomorrow nice and quick, and then on to the Alps on Friday.

"We are ticking it off - a little bit of a cliché - but day by day. We just want to get through these stages as best we can and then look forward to the mountains.