Alberto Contador has admitted he may hand over leadership of Tinkoff at the Tour de France to team-mate Roman Kreuziger after losing more time on stage eight.
The 33-year-old Spaniard was already 1min 21sec behind new race leader Chris Froome but surrendered another 1min 41sec on a chastening day in the Pyrenees.
The result leaves him 3min 12sec adrift of Froome in 20th overall and 2min 38sec down on Kreuziger, who finished a strong fifth on stage eight and is 12th in the standings.
Contador, who has been suffering from injuries sustained in crashes on stages one and two, said: "We are going to talk with the rest of the team for the future because Roman Kreuziger is better placed than I am.
"It's terrible to have crashed like this twice in the first week and to have lost so much time after working so hard to be here. It's cycling; danger is everywhere."
Contador was dropped out of an elite lead group on the final climb of stage eight, the Col de Peyresourde, when Froome, Nairo Quintana, Dan Martin and Romain Bardet all launched attacks.
Contador added: "The stage was very hard for me, very demanding. I was hoping not to lose too much time today, but that's the way it is. I did the best I can."
Meanwhile, cyclingnews.com has reported that Contador will sign for Trek-Segafredo on Monday.
The Tour continues on Sunday with a 184km ninth stage starting in Vielha Val d'Aran and ending with a summit finish at Andorre Arcalis. Find out more about the route in our race guide and follow the stage with our live blog from 12pm BST.