Ineos Grenadiers team leaders Geraint Thomas, Adam Yates, and Daniel Martinez had mixed feelings after a day on the cobbles of stage 5 of the Tour de France. A crash with 30km to go left them chasing race favorite Tadey Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates).

Thomas crashed with Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), breaking a gear. Shortly after, Primoš Roglic (Jumbo Visma) crashed on the exit of the roundabout after hitting a hay bale. The Welsh rider fell back into the chase group and eventually joined Wout Van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard.

Pogachar is now fourth overall, 19 seconds behind Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma). Yates is in 8th place, 29 seconds behind Pogachar, Thomas is another 2 seconds behind in 10th place, and Martinez is 50 seconds behind the Slovenian.

Thomas was impressed with Pogachar's attack in the finale, but the trio of Ineos Grenadiers is still in the game.

"The impressive thing about Pogachar is that he doesn't have a team. While warming down in the shadow of the team bus, his twisted rear derailleur made a crunching sound and jumped sprockets.

"It could have been worse, but it could have been better. To be honest, I felt a little sluggish when I started on this car. But as soon as we got onto the cobblestones, I felt better.

"As the sectors went on, the feeling got better and better. Then literally two minutes later, Jack Haig and a couple of Bahraini riders crashed right in front of me. That's probably where Roglic crashed, too.

"I almost crashed. I got up on the chain and Tom [Pidcock] came with me, but with 30km to go the gas was full and there was nothing I could do." [In the last 30 km, he couldn't stay in one gear, constantly up and down, just surviving. Vingegaard came running with two of his guys. The legs were good. It's just a shame I crashed."

Yates finished in the same group as Thomas and was probably even more pleased to have survived the day.

"It went well," he said. I just needed to make it through without crashing, without losing time, and that's what I did. I almost made it to the front, but I got caught up in a crash. Geraint crashed too, so it wasn't a perfect day, but we didn't lose too much time.

Yates has little experience racing on cobblestones, but he seemed to handle it well, and the battle for position before the 11th cobblestone sector was a heavyweight battle that constantly tested his nerve and power.

"To be honest, it wasn't the cobblestones that were hard. It's before and after the cobblestones. 'Once you get into the cobblestones, it gets easier in a way. Once you exit the sector, everyone is knackered and going left and right.

"I did a good job of keeping in front. It wasn't a perfect run, but it could have been worse.