Ironically many riders feel relieved at the prospect of tackling the mountain at last.

The many crashes in recent stages wore out the peloton and the first great ascents of this Tour will probably calm the race down a little.

At BMC,  Tejay Van Garderen lost a minute on Friday in a crash between Epernay and Nancy and, more importantly,  one oh his most precious aides in the mountains, Colombia's Darwin Atapuma, who fractured his shin.

"It's a big loss," said team manager Jim Ochowicz.

"Ironically, he went through all the tough stages of the first week and he crashed out on the day before the mountains. As for Tejay, he's alright. The morale is always a bit touched when you lose time but if he maintains a 3:14 gap with Nibali, to me, he'll finish second in the Tour," he added.

At Garmin-Sharp, the tension was easing after the spectacular tumble suffered by Andrew Talansky in the last stretch in Nancy. The Dauphine winner finally suffered more in his pride than in his flesh.

Belgium's Jurgen Van den Broeck, 5th overall, was also involved in a pile-up in the last corner of stage 7. But he hardly hurt himself and was relieved to be back on his favorite terrain: "I'm not losing time and I'm not injured. That's the most important thing," he said.