Tough Andrew Talansky keeps Tour de France alive

American Talansky battled through Wednesday's 187.5-kilometre stage from Besancon to Oyonnax, completing the final 80km solo after blowing a tyre.

The reason Talansky's team-mates failed to wait up for him was obvious - the Miami native was fading out of general classification contention by the second, and his body was beaten and bruised after two crashes in the first week of Le Tour.

His Garmin-Sharp mates could not risk missing the Tour cut off time themselves, so Talansky was left to fend for himself.

However, despite the option of throwing in the towel and jumping into the team car for an early exit, the man they call 'Pitbull' battled gamely to finish inside the time cut-off by just over five minutes, finishing 32:05 behind winner Tony Gallopin.

And despite his Tour chances being blown out of the water on Wednesday, Talansky came in for some praise as he showed grit in the face of extreme adversity.

"I really take my hat off to Andrew," former Garmin-Sharp cyclist Christian Vande Velde told Cyclingnews.

"It's such a shock to the system when you go off the back by yourself and have so many negative thoughts going through your head.

"But I think he made the right decision to fight on and finish the stage.

"He's not going to wake up tomorrow and think could have, should have or would have.

"He won't [have] any regrets no matter what he decides to do going forward."

Sports director Robbie Hunter revealed he did not put thoughts of an early exit into Talansky's mind after he was unfortunately halted mid-stage.

"Honestly, I didn't say too much," Hunter said, when it looked Talansky was set to retire with 60km of the stage remaining.

"I said to him that the decision was up to him. If at the end of the day, he finds himself in a situation where he can't continue, no problem.

"But if he wants to fight on and get to the finish - because that's the kind of guy he is - then the only way we're going to get there is by riding."