Apart from a small crash in stage 5, Alejandro Valverde has avoided any major setbacks in the first week of the Tour de France and now goes into the mountains sitting in the overall top 10. With the podium being his big goal, he makes it clear that a stage victory will not be enough to satisfy him.

Though the Movistar Team bus seemed more like a 'bandage competition' after the finish in Nancy, following the second longest stage in the 2014 Tour de France - 235km starting at Épernay, John Gadret's hometown - no complaints could be heard from any of the telephone squad's riders; more like the opposite, as they all committed to protect Alejandro Valverde, who has got through the first week of the race within the best ten overall (+2'11".)

The Spaniard's team-mates worked relentlessly in the flat section, often with stretches of strong wind, preceeding the two final, Cat-4 climbs: Maron and Boufflers. There was special engagement from the two men most harmed by yesterday's setbacks, Ion Izagirre and Imanol Erviti, as well as Beñat Intxausti, who led his team onto  the slopes - peaking at over 10% - that cleaned the group and left only the favourites up-front.

Just 30 riders reached together a final straight which saw two crashes - an earlier pile-up at the summit of Maron left José Joaquín Rojas out of contention, yet with no relevant damage for the Murcian - and a photo-finish sprint where Italian Matteo Trentin (OPQ) beat green jersey holder Peter Sagan (CAN). The finish, which Valverde reached in 12th, couldn't be contested by Giovanni Visconti, with a mechanical at 15km from the end.

The Italian and all the Blues will search for success in the final wall of La Mauselaine (Cat-3; 1.8km at 10.3%) in Gérardmer, end of a 161km route that will also feature the consecutive climbs of the Col de la Croix des Moinats (Cat-2) and the Col de la Grosse Pierre (Cat-2.)

"Once again it was awesome once again how we rode," Valverde said. "There is much tension, the nervousness is tremendous. We had to be very careful.

"Tomorrow another Tour starts and I hope to be good. I am not satisfied with a stage victory, the goal is another."