Tinkoff-Saxo managed to protect team leader Alberto Contador on the nervous stage 5 of Tour de France, where several crosswind sections made for a stage affected by several crashes. Peter Sagan notes that he is happy with the fact that Contador finished unscathed, while the white jersey himself was able to grab 2nd place in the final sprint behind André Greipel.
Peter Sagan missed the victory by a slim margin after coming fast from behind. He took his third top-three at Tour de France and voiced that the outcome of the day was very positive.
“Today the team did a nice race and Alberto finished safely and I got 2nd place just missing a little bit. I was too far back in the last hundred meters and I was just a little bit late but overall it was good. I was simply too far back in 10th position with a hundred meters to go and I couldn’t catch Greipel. It’s hard to beat a rider like him and I’m happy with my 2nd place. I was free to do my own race in the last five kilometers and I tried to position myself but a lot of riders came from behind and I had too many meters to make up in the final hundred meters”, says Peter Sagan, who adds that the wind and rain made for a tough stage.
“This is how it went today and each stage has its own story. It was also very crazy today with rain, wind and a lot of crashes and I’m happy with how we finished. Everybody wants to be at the front on a day like this to protect their team leaders and that creates tension in the group. We will see what happens tomorrow, it will depend on the conditions and if there is wind, because I want to help and protect Alberto but maybe I can do a good result in the finale”.
Stage 5 of Tour de France consisted of 189.5 windy and wet kilometers from Arras to Amiens. Despite several accelerations at the front of the bunch that created gaps and echelons in the crosswind, a big selection failed to materialize. However, the touch-and-go racing resulted in several crashes, tells Head Sports Director Steven de Jongh.
“All in all, it went well today and we managed to keep Alberto and Peter out of trouble and without any problems during the stage. Unfortunately there were many crashes today and we had Matteo Tosatto, Ivan Basso and Michael Rogers, who all went down during the stage. Rogers and Basso escaped unharmed but Tosatto suffered a blow to the knee. However, he made it to the finish line, he is in a bit of pain but he will be able to continue and I don’t think it will be a big problem”, says Steven de Jongh before adding about Sagan’s second place.
“Peter was 2nd in the sprint and it shows that he is strong. We are not here with a lead-out train and Peter also plays an important role during the stage. However, in the sprints he can do his thing and today he came really close. Tomorrow the weather should be a bit better without rain, which is good and hopefully we will also have less wind than today, as it always makes for a hard stage”.
