Egan Bernal said he had "no excuses" for how poorly he rode on today's stage 15 at the Tour de France, adding the other riders were better than him.
The Colombian leader of Ineos Grenadiers, and reigning Tour champion, said he was in trouble today from the first climb of the day.
However, he said he wanted to try as hard as he could for as long as he could as he wanted to do his best for the team and also to respect the race.
But at the end of the day he had to accept that he couldn't win every race he rode, adding "that's cycling, that's life".
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He lost almost 7½ minutes to stage winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and yellow jersey Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) after losing contact with what was still a very large select group of over 20 riders with 13km to go to the top of the Grand Colombier.
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Bernal, who was installed undisputed leader of his team when Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome were dropped from the Tour line-up, is now 13th overall at 8:25 having been 3rd this morning at 59 seconds this morning.
Asked if he could somehow get the time back he laughed and said that his hopes of winning were over "for sure".
Bernal added he had no indication in recent days that his form was poor and that he was about to have a bad day. He added he had eaten properly and done everything else right, saying he had felt especially good yesterday.
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