emerged the winner, on the same time as Herrera. Kelly and Niki Rüttimann () followed 38 seconds down, one second ahead of the group containing the other favourites, led home by Roche. During the stage, Joël Pelier (), riding his first Tour, had followed Herrera, thinking he was joining a breakaway, not realising that Herrera was only sprinting for mountain points. Hinault, who was generally accepted as the patron, meaning the most influential rider, was unhappy with the acceleration in the field, as he wanted the tempo to remain slow. This led to an altercation between the two, with Hinault riding up to Pelier and to complain. Weakened by his attacking riding style over the previous days, Hinault placed only second in the mountain time trial to Villard-de-Lans, about a minute behind Vanderaerden. Yet, his advantage over LeMond, who again had mechanical issues, increased to 5:23 minutes on the general classification. Roche lost 16 seconds to Hinault, Anderson 24 seconds and Kelly 35 seconds. Roche remained the closest competitor to the duo, sitting third overall, 6:08 minutes behind Hinault, with Kelly fourth, at 6:35 minutes. Anderson was sixth, behind Bauer. Transition through Massif Central Following the only rest day of the Tour, stage 14 took the riders to Saint-Étienne in the Massif Central. The stage, following a hilly route, saw Luis Herrera attack again and gain more points for the mountains classification. Although he crashed on the final descent of the day, he prevailed to reach the finish line first, soaked in blood, 47 seconds ahead of a small group of riders containing LeMond. Hinault followed in a group almost two minutes later. As they approached the finish, Bauer's rear wheel hit a piece of traffic furniture. As his bike moved sideways, it touched Anderson's, who crashed and brought down Hinault with him. The latter suffered a broken nose, but was able to finish the stage. As the accident had occurred within the final kilometre, the time he lost in the crash was not counted. However, Hinault rode the rest of the Tour with a stitched nose and two black eyes, caused by his sunglasses breaking when he fell. As a result of LeMond finishing ahead of him, Hinault's overall lead was cut down to 3:32 minutes. Stage 15 was another transition stage. Hennie Kuiper (), winner of Milan–San Remo earlier in the year, did not take the start. Pedro