Sunday 3 July 2016 19:41, UK
Alberto Contador admitted he is “physically hampered” and unable to pedal properly after crashing twice in the opening two days of the Tour de France.
Having already sustained bruising and cuts to his right-hand side in a heavy tumble on stage one on Saturday, the 33-year-old Spaniard fell again midway through Sunday's second stage and sustained injuries to his left-hand side.
He was consequently unable to keep pace on the uphill sprint to the finish in Cherbourg and lost 48 seconds to his two key rivals for overall victory, Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana.
Contador said: "I lost more time than I had hoped to lose. I suffered another crash; I hit the handlebars and I was hurt on the other side from yesterday.
"I must stay calm, not lose morale. I'm still standing, but I have been really affected. The Tour has really started on the wrong footing. I'm not happy at all. It's cycling.
"I'm physically hampered. I cannot pedal as I would like as the result of crashes. The important thing is to keep my morale, not fall apart, which is sometimes complicated. Both legs are very affected."
Contador now has two sprint stages on Monday and Tuesday on which to recover, but Wednesday's fifth stage ends with a flurry of small climbs and could see the overall favourites for victory tested.
He hopes he can survive that stage without further losses and then start a fightback when the Tour reaches the Pyrenees on Friday's seventh stage.
He added: "I must see if I can make up some time in the Pyrenees and the Alps; see what I can do."
The Tour continues on Monday with a 223.5km third stage from Granville to Angers. Find our more about the route in our race guide and follow all the action with our live blog from 1pm BST.
