Before the race, Spanish rider Angel Vicioso became the third cyclist to abandon after failing to shake off an injury after falling the previous day.
Two other riders -- Marc Lotz of the Netherlands and US cyclist Levi Leipheimer -- withdrew after Sunday's first-stage crash which felled around 35 riders.
AP. Lyon, France
Struggling up a mountain in baking heat, with your legs feeling like lead and your body awash with pain, doesn't sound like a fun job. But, according to Australia's Baden Cooke, some professions are a lot worse.
"When I'm on a mountain, I joke with my teammates that it's better than a nine-to-five job, and believe me, it really is," the fdjeux.com rider said.
"When I was injured one year, I did a lot of boring day jobs, like telesales and emptying out money from parking meters," he said. "That's worse than any mountain."
Riders will face 24 mountain climbs of over 1,000m in this year's Tour. Eleven of these will be Alpine ascents, with the remaining 13 based in the Pyrenees. Without including the numerous smaller hills on the Tour, riders will ascend the vertical equivalent of 36,628m -- which otherwise reads as 36.6km.
Among the Alpine climbs: Col du Galibier: 2,645m; Col d'Izoard: 2,360m; and the Port de Pailheres: 2,001m, the highest ascent in the Pyrenees. One particularly shattering day of Pyrenees legwork comes on the 14th stage on July 20 -- just a week before the end of the showcase race. The route is a 191.5km slog from Saint-Girons to Loudenvielle-Le Louron, featuring six climbs exceeding 1,000m.
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