Even though Vincenzo Nibali currently holds a very comfortable lead in the Tour de France general classification, not everything has gone perfectly well for the Astana team last days as the key domestique of the 29-year old Italian, Jakob Fuglsand, crashed heavily on the descent from the Col de Palaquit on Friday and openly admitted that only riding for the mailot jaune prevented him from abandoning the race.

As a consequence of a very unfortunate and controversial crash caused by a water bottle dropped by Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol), Fuglsang sustained nearly countless injuries, including contusions, abrasions, and soreness all over his body, especially on the left side of his body.

Nonetheless, the 29-year old Dane quickly remounted his bike and managed to finish both difficult mountain stages in a time limit, but admittedly suffered two very restless nights and needed to be helped on to his bike at the start yesterday.

“Today I’m more stiff than I was yesterday,” Fuglsang said. “Last night was, again, terrible. [Monday] is a rest day, and that’s very welcome.”

“As they say, anything can happen up until the Tour finishes in Paris,” he told VeloNews. “It was a water bottle on the road, and I saw it, and I thought, ‘I hope I miss it,’ because it was too late for me to react, and the next second I was on the road. It was just bad luck.”

After finishing within the top ten last year, Fuglsang was expected to play a role of Nibali’s key domestique at the Tour de France this season and in-form Dane proved his worth in slightly surprising circumstances, guiding the yellow jersey safely through the cobbles, before hitting the deck on the descent.

The 29-year old rider admitted that his team’s situation in the Tour de France general classification was a main motivation to stay in the race, and with a big confidence in his disposition he still expects himself to be useful for his leader in the Pyrenees.

“[The crash] could have gone much worse than it actually did,” Fuglsang said. “But I trained so hard for this Tour, and the team is doing really well, and they still need me, so I’m trying to [clench] my teeth and get through these first days, which are for sure the hardest… If we were a team that had already sent a few guys home, and nothing was working out for us, of course it would be more difficult [to continue].”

“My shape [condition] has been really, really good before [the crash], and that’s also why I still can be decent, even with the injuries,” Fuglsang said.