Reigning champion Alberto Contador will have to fight his way back from his current deficit, after his Saxo Bank-SunGard team decided against an appeal over Saturday's contentious opening stage.

The Spaniard was one of several leading riders who fell foul of the late crashes that allowed the likes of race rival Cadel Evans to gain an early advantage in the overall standings.

With his team letting another 22 seconds slip by in Sunday's team time trial, Contador now finds himself one minute and 42 seconds behind current leader Thor Hushovd of the Garmin-Cervelo outfit.

Contador was held up in a crash, with around eight kilometres to go into the Mont des Alouettes finish, before riding into another incident with three kilometres left that shed a further 46 seconds.

Usually incidents that occur within the last three kilometres do not mean the riders get punished on the timesheets, however Contador was one of several riders who picked up the added time loss.

Bjarne Riis and sport director Bradley McGee talked with Tour and UCI officials on Saturday evening to see if they could mount an appeal, but acknowledged that they have to take it on the chin and move on.

The Dane, who knows the arduous Giro d'Italia win took something out of Contador, revealed: "We lost more time than we would have liked, but the Tour is just starting. We expect things to stay the way they are until the Pyrénées. There is no reason to change our tactics. I know Alberto is strong."

Meanwhile Contador, after the second stage, claimed: "We went all out and now we must think of the next few days and try not to have a recurrence of yesterday (Saturday), when we had bad luck.

"Throwing in the towel is the last thing I would do. Now there are riders who have more options to win, but there is no reason to throw in the towel.

"We knew we’d lose some time today to the better teams. The first two days didn’t go as we would have liked, but the objective remains the same. We just have to keep calm until we reach the mountains.

"I'm sure I'll get better every day because I have not the same preparations as the other favorites who have done the Dauphiné (Libéré) and the Tour of Switzerland."

Team-mate Richie Porte declared: "He’s calm, cool and collected. Let’s hope he has the legs later in the race. I think he will."

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