Sunday 3 July 2016 19:44, UK
Richie Porte admitted losing 1min 45sec to his rivals due to a puncture on stage two of the Tour de France was a “disaster”.
The BMC Racing rider was the bookmakers' pre-race fourth favourite for overall victory but his yellow jersey hopes took a potentially fatal blow when he had to stop for a wheel change with 4km remaining.
It was the second time in just over a year that Porte has fallen foul of a puncture in a grand tour, after being given a two-minute penalty for an illegal wheel change in the 2015 Giro d'Italia.
Porte said: "It was a disaster. But what can you do when you are sitting second wheel, in the perfect position?
"I don't know what I did, but the next thing I know, my rear tyre went down and I had to try and get back through the peloton. I guess you can only move on.
"The Tour de France is far from over. It's quite a hard one to take, but at the end of the day, I guess we just pretend it never happened and wait for the mountains to come. It's only a bike race, isn't it? I'm sure the sun will come up tomorrow."
Porte's puncture occurred just as the pace in the peloton was rising ahead of an uphill finish in Cherbourg, which was won by new race leader Peter Sagan.
Porte is now 1min 59sec down on the Slovakian in 81st overall.
He added: "Marcus Burghardt came back, but when you are going that fast there's not much you can do in terms of a bike change. It all just happened so quickly that by the time Burghardt came back, the bunch was gone anyhow."
The Tour continues on Monday with a 223.5km third stage from Granville to Angers that should end in a sprint. Find our more about the route in our race guide and follow all the action with our live blog from 1pm BST.
