Tom Dumoulin was, in a word, "stupid." The Dutch rider of Jumbo-Visma, who fell on the Col de Cattleshman, the final climb of the Tour de France's second stage, can now afford to laugh it off after reaching the Promenade des Anglais safely in the company of overall contenders, one day less.

After a series of crashes on the winding descents of Saturday's opening stage of the Tour, Jumbo Visma's fall occurred on a wide, dry climb with 12km to go, just after Julien Alaphilippe (Deutschinck-Quick-Step) had clinched the day's victory. He crossed the finish line with teammates Primos Roglic and Egan Bernal of Ineos Grenadier.

"It was stupid," Dumoulin told NOS (open in new tab). 'I don't really know what happened. Maybe I looked left for a second and that made me swerve a little to the right. Then (Michal) Kwiatkowski came up to me and slammed my handlebars off."

As soon as Kwiatkowski saw what happened, he raised his arms and apologized. Dumoulin was already on the ground by then, but he quickly got back on his bike and rejoined the overall class grande group long before it reached the summit of the Col de Cattleshman.

"I was full of adrenaline after what happened in the finale of the stage. The fall happened before I knew it and I was back before I knew it," Dumoulin said.

He reported no injuries beyond a hard hit to his right knee and stressed that there were no lasting effects - no doubt aware that months after the crash that ended his 2019 season prematurely, the condition of his other knee was dominating the headlines in the Netherlands.

"Luckily, I didn't really get hurt," Dumoulin said. 'I bumped my knee a little bit, but I think I'm okay. My right knee hurts the most, but I think it will loosen up. I'll try not to let it explode."

Sunday's stage climbed the Col de la Colmiane and the Col de Tourini as the Tour entered the Alpes-Maritimes department. Jumbo Visma continued to lead on the Col d'Eze, where Robert Gesink's brisk pacemaking prevented an attack, but on the final Col de Cattleshman, Alaphilippe, Marc Hirsch (Sunweb), and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), escaped from a group of about 30 riders and stayed away.

In the overall standings, Dumoulin and Roglic were 10th and 11th overall, 17 seconds behind Alaphilippe.

"Primoz and I are where we should be. It wasn't a weekend to attack and we got through it relatively safe," Dumoulin told Sporza (open in new tab).

"You have to be careful not to carry the weight of the whole race from day one. We did that this weekend. It was a great weekend for us."