Wilco Kelderman crashed in the fifth stage of Paris-Nice, but came away without much damage. Team LottoNL-Jumbo’s front man continued and finished in front of the group that sprinted for second place. Sep Vanmarcke took fifth. Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team), solo, won the day.

“If you’re looking at the general classification, then we had a good day,” sports director, Nico Verhoeven said. “Wilco Kelderman crashed with 40 kilometres to go, but only struggled a little bit with a scraped backside. George Bennett and Steven Kruijswijk fell behind because of that crash. The crash took place just before the penultimate climb, so it took a lot of energy to bring back Wilco.”

Good feeling

Kelderman didn’t see his crash coming. “The crash happened just in front of us,” he said. “We weren’t able to avoid it, and George and I fell into it. Everything was fine in the end. There wasn’t anything wrong with my bike so I was able to continue immediately. Within one and a half kilometres, I was back in the peloton. From that moment, everything went fine. I rode at the front-end of the race all the time, which came quite easily. I finished this stage with a good feeling.”

Kelderman wants to keep that feeling when he starts in Saturday’s queen stage. “Tomorrow is the most important stage of the week,” Verhoeven added. “Whoever takes the yellow jersey will probably win the general classification, as well, when the race ends on Sunday.”