Tejay van Garderen found himself as both a winner and a loser after today's big GC battle on the cobbles in the Tour de France as he lost time to race leader Vincenzo Nibali but gained time on riders like Alberto Contador. Having gone down in a crash himself, the American doesn't feel that cobbles should be included in the French race.

BMC Racing Team's Tejay van Garderen was among several Tour de France contenders who found themselves more than two minutes off the overall lead Wednesday following a chaotic stage that included rain, wind and several cobblestone sections.

On a day when defending Tour de France champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) withdrew from the race after falling, van Garderen also hit the ground during a stage featuring seven cobblestone sections comprising 13.4 kilometers of the 155.5-kilometer race.

"My rear wheel just kind of got away from me," van Garderen said. "It was insane out there. I heard Froome was out of the Tour. You guys got your drama but it takes the whole race down a notch when you have a big favourite who is now out. In theory it can make the race less exciting towards the end. I think the ASO, they need to rethink putting things like this in the race."

Van Garderen finished 31st, 2:28 behind Lars Boom (Belkin Pro Cycling), who soloed away from race leader Vincenzo Nibali and his Astana Pro Team teammate, Jakob Fuglsang, on the final stretch of cobblestones to win by 19 seconds. Nibali's third-place finish saw him increase his lead from two seconds over van Garderen to 2:11.

"It could have been worse, it could have been better," van Garderen said. "We will just have to move forward."

BMC Racing Team's Greg Van Avermaet, who was also sitting two seconds off the lead before the stage, finished 13:25 back, in 97th place.

"I crashed just before the first cobblestone section," he said. "I made it back before the second one but I was too far behind in the peloton. With this rain, you can never move up on the cobblestones. So my race was already over then and I took it easy to the finish."

BMC Racing Team Sport Director Max Sciandri was optimistic about the team's performance and van Garderen's 12th place on the general classification.

"Today could have been a day when we could have either been right on the top or right on the bottom," he said. "I would say we were somewhere in between the middle – maybe a little better than the middle. If we look at the GC right now, we are good."