After a poor showing in yesterday's stage, Team Europcar bounced back in the most excellent way when they put 5 riders into a 28-rider breakaway and moved Pierre Rolland and Cyril Gautier into the top 10 in the overall standings. However, there will be no attack from Rolland tomorrow as the team leader doesn't have the legs he had in the Giro and will try to save the time gains he earned today as best he can.

Involved in the break of the day with four Europcar team-mates, Frenchman Pierre Rolland made it back to 8th overall, 4:07 behind Tony Gallopin, but 2:33 behind Vincenzo Nibali and in front of Alberto Contador before the key stage to La Planche des Belles Filles.

"I went through hard times during the first week," he said. "Yesterday it was not a great joy in the Europcar bus. We had decided to remotivate and try again. We had a great urge to do well. But to have five men in the front was just unbelievable.

"When we saw that it was lost for the stage win, I talked to Tony Gallopin and we decided to try and do something for the GC. It might be my chauvinistic side, but I rode full gas like I was the one taking the jersey. Tomorrow, I'll try to take it easier because I'm not super, I don't have the same legs as in the Giro.

“It’s good for the moral but it hurts on the legs. Yesterday, nobody on our team featured in the breakaway and that’s not often the case. Afterwards, I lost time so the ambiance in the hotel yesterday evening wasn’t great. We turned it around as quick as possible.

"As team leader, it was up to me to tell the guys to go for it. We attacked right from the start and now we’re back in the game. Having five guys in the breakaway shows that we’re a strong collective. The teammates showed a lot of confidence, so hats off to them.

“We didn’t get a bigger gap but the other teams didn’t want to see me move up too much. In the end, with Cyril, we worked hard for me, and Tony. All day long, I motivated him but he was alone. I’m very happy he took the jersey. If you look at the bigger picture we kind of worked for him as well. I’m please he takes the maillot jaune. A Frenchman in yellow on Bastille Day is great. Grand Chapeau to Tony Martin who was enormous."

“This is Europcar-style," Gautier said. "It’s what we like. We love to ride as a team. What we lost early on, we managed to make up partly today. We were with the five of us. We were not helped by the others to get back on Tony Martin.”