Australia's Richie Porte hit a pothole in the last 8km of stage 14 of the Tour de France on Saturday. But Porte, who is ninth overall and 2:06 behind race leader Primoš Roglic (Jumbo Visma), took Trek-Segafredo teammate Kenny Elissondo's bike and quickly rejoined the main group with about 6km to go.

"There was an embracing pothole and it was not ideal conditions, so I had a double puncture [on both wheels]," Porte explained in a video interview posted by Trek-Segafredo on social media on Saturday evening.

"Our director, Kim Andersen, told me that the track surface wasn't the best for the final, so I knew Kenny would always be close by.

Porte said he was lucky that Elissondo was about his size, because if he had to ride another Trek-Segafredo teammate's bike, it would have been much harder to catch up.

"If I had been on Jasper Stuyven's bike, I wouldn't have been able to touch the pedals. It was a close call, but I was lucky not to lose time," Porte laughed.

"I think I was lucky that Søren Kragu Andersen had attacked by then and everyone was looking at each other a little bit," Porte said, but the stage winner did not actually attack until around 3km to go.

"I think we were lucky that Crag-Andersen was looking at each other a little bit," Porte said, "but in fact the stage winner didn't attack until around 3 km to go.

Asked to describe the process of arranging and executing a bike change at what must have been a very stressful point in the race, Porte replied: "Despite the double puncture, I was able to radio Kenny and ask him for a change.

"He's shorter than me, which doesn't happen often," Porte smiled.

"The only difference was that his brakes were a lot looser than mine.

Porte, and ideally Elissondo, will aim to be back in the lead, if needed again, on Sunday's 15th stage, which ends with a summit finish at the Col du Grand Colombier.