The fifth stage of the Tour de France from Arras to Amiens led over 189 kilometers, and it had been expected as the first mass sprint of this year's Tour. However, as the stage was marked by many changes of direction, the field split with 50 kilometers to go the. The top of the peloton used a crosswind situation to increase the speed and several riders fell back.

BORA – ARGON 18 leader Dominik Nerz, as well as Paul Voss and Zak Dempster made the split and were part of the first group. Despite a crash in this group at the 25-kilometer-to-go mark, the day’s victory was battled among these riders. Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) won the group sprint, thus securing his second stage win. Zak Dempster only barely missed the top 10 by sprinting to 12th place.

Tony Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) defended the yellow jersey. Dominik Nerz confirms his 27th place in the overall standings followed by Paul Voss on 32nd place.

"Due to the weather conditions it's been a very challenging stage. The rain, the strong wind as well as the many changes in direction of the course made it very hard today. So from the start we rode very concentrated and compact and already in front on the first few kilometers to avoid crashes. The team has managed that very well.

"At a wind edge situation, the field was then torn apart and unfortunately Sam [Bennett], Bartosz [Huzarski], Jose [Mendes], Emanuel [Buchmann] and Jan [Barta] were caught in the larger group, which was not able to stay on the field. The other three, Dominik, Paul and Zak could position themselves in the first group and tried to keep Dominik out of the wind.

"In the end, Zak came up with a decent sprint which was rewarded with a 12th place. From that point of view and in regard to the overall standings, we haven't lost anything. Of course, we had in mind to eventually attack today with Sam in the sprint. Unfortunately, he did not have the legs to do so.", comments  Sports Director Enrico Poitschke the stage.