At the beginning of the fifth stage, no one thought about attacking at first. But with the first intermediate sprint in sight Josef Cerny and Louis Vervaeke suddenly took off. Thomas De Gendt slipped along, together with Geoffrey Bouchard.
“We were actually playing a bit when we went to get water bottles. Suddenly we drove on, but after the intermediate sprint the three of them pulled over and I made it a good training.”
“I also rode the Tour of Oman and those races here are disappointing in terms of wattages,” says De Gendt surprisingly. “I’m losing fitness here because it’s really too easy in the peloton. So today was a better day.”
De Gendt never thought about the stage victory? “I chose my pace and tried to ride 300 watts all the way. Afterwards in the last 30km in the headwind it was not useful to stay ahead for long. There are 20 sprinters here who want to win, so do we. So it was certainly not the intention to win from the flight.”
