finish her first women's Tour de France.

After three stages she lies in 109th position out of a field of 118 starters following a particularly hard day yesterday when she was forced to cycle 130 kilometres on her own after being dropped during a mountain climb.

Husband Paul, who spoke to Melanie last night, said: "She's maintaining her strategy to try and complete the Tour as opposed to try and compete for honours.

"Today was a very difficult 155 kilometre ride with a 10 kilometre mountain climb at the start of the race and she concedes that she was dropped during the climb and was forced to ride over 130 kilometres on her own.

"This was not what she had planned and her legs are suffering as a result.

But she is upbeat about tomorrow and hoping to recover in time.'' Claude's total time after three stages is eight hours, 54 minutes and 12 seconds compared to overall leader Mirjam Melcher's time of seven hours, 58 minutes and 11 seconds.

Eight cyclists failed to finish yesterday's stage.