After two days in the breakaway, Andrew Talansky again tried to join the early move in stage 19 before he fought his way to a 12th place at the finish, moving to 11th in the overall standings.

“It was full-gas racing, everything was blown to bits early on the Croix de Fer,” he told Cyclingnews “It was full on from there, and I’m sure that continued up at the front on the last climb. I was just riding as hard as I could up to the finish.

“I’m happy with the effort I’ve made during the third week of the Tour. Obviously I came here with some higher GC aspirations, but those didn’t pan out for a few reasons. I’m glad I’m still giving all I have in this third week to try to get a result on a stage or to make a move up on GC. I want to pay the team back for all of the work they did for me in the first half of the race.

“I’m not going to say that I’m going to miraculously win the stage and beat Chris Froome, Quintana and Contador, but I’m going to give everything that I have until the very last stage of the Tour de France."