"We tried it together from the start, you can't say that about every team" - Lotto Soudal left empty handed again as Caleb Ewan crashes out

Caleb Ewan has not had his leadout here at the Tour de France, but was in for a shot yestoday into Saint-Étienne having the team committed to chasing the day's breakaway - which eventually took the honors. Another crash however saw the Australian again empty handed at the end of the day.

"I felt really good and that is why we committed to control the breakaway, which never got too far ahead, until that crash," Ewan said, before detailing the crash that took him out of contention: "I don’t know what happened, there was braking in the middle of the corner, I had nowhere to go and touched the back wheel in front of me".

After crashing alongside Primoz Roglic in the stage to Roubaix - adding to the Giro d'Italia's opening day and the bout of illnesses that took him out of Milano-Sanremo - the season is far from going to plan for the Australian.

He's yet to fight for a stage win so far in the Tour, and today's chances were again taken out. He reported on how he felt at the end of the day: "My knee and shoulder are pretty sore for the moment, so hopefully it’s alright but we’ll have to wait and see how it evolves later tonight."

Team manager John Lelangue shared the disappointing emotion: "It's an opportunity that's gone, but we tried. I also want to say fair play to Alpecin. We tried it together from the start, you can't say that about every team," he told Wielerflits.

Sunday's stage into Carcassonne is likely to be another day for a breakaway, however a possibility for the sprinters. That would leave stages 19 and 21 as the final days for the fast men to capitalize, with Lotto Soudal very much under pressure.