Maxime Monfort was 32nd in the 5th stage of the Giro d'Italia , three minutes behind the winner and one minute and thirty seconds behind the favorites.

"Today I wanted to see how I recovered from yesterday's stage, where I used a lot of energy," he told Bein Sport. "I felt good but six kilometers from the finish it was difficult. I ended up trying to limit the damage in the GC. There are 16 stages left. It is true that there are three above the rest, but there is still a lot of places of honor and stage wins.

"I've never seen a grand Tour start like that. It's pretty amazing. It's hard for the riders but good for the public. I will attack in the coming days when the start to the stages are disorganized."

The co-leader of the team Lotto-Soudal also spoke about his team, and Jurgen Van den Broeck, the "natural" leader, who lost a bit of time today.

"The team was third on the second stage (with André Greipel ), we are  there in the breakaways. Tomorrow there will be a good chance to win the sprint. Jurgen is in a good rhythm. There will be many tired riders later with the difficult start. He knows what he does, he has twice finished fourth in the Tour. This is only stage 5, we must give him time. "