While the battle for the podium and overall standings was raging in front on stage 10 of the Tour de France, a very different battle was taking place behind. Sprinters Caleb Yuan (Lotto d'Estonny), Fabio Jacobsen (Sourdal-Quick-Step), and the frontrunners may be rivals when they line up for the sprint, but on Tuesday they were united by a common goal: to make it before the time cutoff.

They were rested and ready to go.

The start after a day of rest was not easy, with temperatures in the 30s even before the race began, and the 167-km stage from Vulcagna to Issoire was a GC battle from the beginning. With even the top 10 riders under pressure, it was no surprise that several of the sprinters dropped out of the pack early on.

"It's definitely a better way to spend your birthday than a 165km drop," Ewan, now 29, said in an Instagram post."

"Thanks to all the players who got me home in time.

In the end, Yuan finished in the final group of six, 34:09 behind stage winner Pero Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious). His teammates Florian Vermersch and Frederic Frisson also worked hard to help the sprinter survive another day. The same was true for Soudal-Quick Step teammates Michael Morkov and Dries Devenyns, who supported Jacobsen. The final group on the road had two different team colors, but on this day a common purpose brought them together.

"Thanks to these four," Jacobsen said on Instagram of his teammates Morkov and Devenyns, as well as Lotto Dostny's Vermeer and Frisson. Without these four, I probably would have dropped out of the race."

The terrain and waves of stage 10 may have taken their toll on Jacobsen, but he was also recovering from a high-speed crash on stage 4 that broke his bike in three and lost a lot of skin.

Asked how his day went, Jacobsen replied, "It was hard."

"It was hard. It was a hard stage. It was not a good day," he told Cycling Weekly." I hoped to be better, but I wasn't." Asked why he struggled so much, he said, "I don't know. There's no way to explain it. Maybe it was the crash.

Ewan and Jacobsen were rivals once again for the 179.8 km stage 11 from Clermont-Ferrand to Moulin.