Mark Cavendish admitted he was surprised he had a 20-point deduction for missing the cut-off time by two minutes on Stage 18 of the Tour de France.
The Manxman finished just over 35 minutes behind the stage winner Andy Schleck.
Cavendish now has a 15-point advantage over Spaniard Jose Rojas in the race for the green jersey.
He said: "It's a little bit of a surprise. There's always going to be a lot of people but we were expecting just to get in the time limit.
"(But) we were just outside (by) a couple of minutes. That's a shame but these things happen."
Thomas Voeckler, meanwhile, said it is a "miracle" that he still has the yellow jersey. The Frenchman's lead has been cut by 1:03 after Schleck's attacking performance
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