Cycling: Alberto Contador relieved after surviving cobblestones in the Tour de France

Contador, the Tour champion in 2007 and 2009, argued that finishing the 152.5-kilometre stage on Wednesday without falling was more important than reducing his time losses so early in the French grand tour.

Wednesday's stage included seven sections of cobblestones in a similar route to the annual Paris-Roubaix one-day classic and with rain pouring down in northern France, the 'pave' - as they are known in French - were even more traitorous than usual.

While Nibali (Astana) powered away from his yellow jersey rivals to finish third on the stage and claim an overall lead of over two minutes on the likes of Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp), Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) and Contador.

"It was a very difficult day, in which I lost a lot of time," Contador said.

"But we finished the day without falling, which is perhaps the most important thing.

"Of course I wish we were on the same time or in front of Nibali but seeing how the situation was and how were cobbles, I didn't want to take more risk than necessary. I'd rather lose a minute more than have a crash."

Contador's tactics of physical preservation could be justified after defending champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) fell twice on Wednesday - both before the cobblestones - to pull out of Le Tour.

But the Spaniard now sits 19th in the general classification (GC), 2:37 behind Nibali.

Another GC challenger, Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) had a better day than Contador on the pave but bemoaned his team's continuing bad luck as a flat tyre denied him a chance to challenge for line honours.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Tour started terribly with star sprinter Mark Cavendish dislocating his collarbone on the opening stage.

Kwiatkowski, 24, looked in good shape to challenge the likes of eventual stage winner Lars Boom (Belkin) on stage five but a mechanical failure on the second-last section of cobblestones saw him finish seventh, although he moved up to fourth in the GC standings - 50s behind Nibali.

"What can I say, we had bad luck. With a bit of good luck, who knows what could have happened, with how good I felt," Kwiatkowski said.

"Many guys in the peloton had bad luck today, and to be in the group with Nibali in yellow like that is encouraging.

"In the end, Omega Pharma-Quick Step is the team that knows what they have to do even when they have trouble."