Cool, windy and wet conditions greeted the riders in the 189.5-kilometer stage five at the Tour de France Wednesday, and it was a tense peloton that pedaled through brisk 35km/h winds all day, each corner changing its direction and keeping everyone on constant edge.

Just past the 100-kilometer mark the lone rider in the day’s breakaway was caught and with 75 kilometers remaining the peloton split in a crosswind section, leaving half the bunch off the back. 

Four of Trek Factory Racing’s eight were ahead of the split, four behind.

“Today was a big, big stress: left,right all day, wind, rain, small roads, crashes….it’s like this.  Some days you just have bad days like this,” said Haimar Zubeldia, relieved to finally be done the frenzied race.

Trek Factory Racing endured their share of the day’s crashes: Bauke Mollema was one of five caught up in separate incidents, but other than a torn jersey, jammed derailer and a chase to rejoin the peloton, he escaped unscathed.

“I said in the pre-race meeting that I was more afraid of today than yesterday and I think there were more crashes today,” pointed out team director Kim Andersen. “We had four or five men down, but luckily everyone is okay. Julian [Arredondo] was the first, and it was quite bad. Then we had Bauke, Laurent [Didier], then Laurent again, and also Bob [Jungels].

“The roads were so slippery; it was unbelievable! No one was really racing; it was not a nice race today to look at, but if they had raced hard, it would have been much worse.”

When the race turned into a tricky headwind for the final 25 kilometers it became difficult to maintain positioning as the sprinters began to jostle with GC contenders at the front, but Markel Irizar and Gregory Rast did a monstrous job to keep Bauke Mollema protected and out of danger.

André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) won the sprint finish ahead of Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick Step), while Bauke Mollema sailed safely across the line to successfully navigate another day in the crazed and unpredictable world that is the Tour de France.