Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) was the big loser in today's 13th stage of the Tour de France which should have been a calm day for the sprinters. An unfortunate incident broke his rear wheel when the race was full on and that saw the Spaniard lose almost 10 minutes. Refusing to give up, he vows to take his revenge over the teams that helped ride him out of GC contention.

Movistar has done a tremendous job in the flat stages throughout this year's Tour de France, always staying careful near the front of the peloton, and if any of the race favourites was to miss out in the crosswinds, it was unlikely to be team leader Alejandro Valverde. Nonetheless, it was the Spaniard who emerged as the big loser at the end of today's windy stage to Saint-Armand-Montrond.

When Omega Pharma-Quick Step attacked into the crosswinds, Movistar showed its strength by placing all of its 8 remaining riders in the front group. The team appeared to have survived the danger when disaster struck.

A broken rear wheel saw Valverde stop to get a replacement from teammate Jonathan Castroviejo. Teammates Imanol Erviti, Ruben Plaza, Jose Joaquin Rojas and Andrey Amador all fell back to support their captain and a little later they even also sacrificed Rui Costa who had started the day 10th overall.

Despite the considerable horsepower, they never got back on as Belkin saw their chance to ride Valverde out of GC contention. Surprisingly, Europcar also decided to lend a hand. After a long chase, the team gave up and Valverde ended up losing more almost 10 minutes, dropping from 2nd to 16th on GC.

"It was a day of pure bad luck, there's nothing else," he said. "We were riding at the front, attentive, confident, well positioned as we always did in this year's Tour, but bad luck made someone crash into me from behind and breaking the rear wheel in a crucial moment. It's something you can't avoid. All the team stopped to wait for me and we were really close to bridge, but some teams, like Belkin or Europcar, pushed harder. That's cycling - sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. We've got to keep fighting and stay calm: there's still a long way to go in this Tour, and the race might and will change a lot."

The team asked Nairo Quintana to stay in the front group and the Colombian remains 8th overall. Hence, the team still has GC options in the race. In the Pyrenees, the team proved to be the strongest in the mountains and Valverde promises to use that strength to put the race on fire in the Alps, thus also taking his revenge over the teams that benefited from his bad luck today.

"Hopes for the rest of the race?" he asked. "It was hard to fight for the overall win before this stage and it's even more complicated today, but we still have Nairo up-front and close in the overall. There's a long week ahead, where we probably won't be able to contest the leader jersey, but we can make some pain into the bunch. Let's see how we plan things after this blow: Nairo is now our best GC rider and we will help him if we decide so, but we can also make a team strategy to hurt others and make the final podium. There are many mountain stages still to come and lots of things can happen. Some of those teams that helped out so I didn't bridge can see their race hardened. The team gave 100% today - it actually was a tremendously hard day for everyone in the race."

They team may already hit back tomorrow in tomorrow's lumpy stage to Lyon. Starting at 14.00, you can follow the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.