Cannondale-Garmin came into the Tour de France with a strong team. Three riders hoped to do a good global classification: Ryder Hesjedal, who rode the Giro, Andrew Talansky and Daniel Martin. About the Canadian rider, he shed more than 20 minutes. Martin, who wished to win the Mur d'Huy stage, is just under eight minutes. So, Talansky is the top ranked. The American rider is in 20th place at less than three minutes back Christopher Froome (Team Sky).

"Honestly, that doesn't change the way that the team moves on these stages. It doesn't really have an effect because the team has to operate in the same way," Cannondale-Garmin directeur sportif Charly Wegelius told Cyclingnews. "We knew that time loss in these first eight or nine days from someone was a very real possibility. As far as those three riders are concerned, they will keep on keeping on and we'll see here we stand after nine days and make an assessment after that."

The first week was marked with a lot of crashes. "It seems to be becoming the theme of the Tour de France these days, early selection through misfortune and accidents," Wegelius said. "I think its a little bit on the borderline as to whether it goes too far. It's not an easy balance to strike and a lot of it is down to luck also. Some time loss of big favourites who wouldn't ordinarily lose time can make the race very interesting, I just hope it doesn't go too far."