Today, the peloton of Tour de France will face the feared cobbles of Northern France. The riders will ride 9 sectors from Paris-Roubaix – known as The Hell of the North. Fans, sport directors and riders all agree; today could very well cause crashes and lost time for the GC-favorites. In fact, Tinkoff-Saxo’s experienced Italian, Daniele Bennati, reckons that the 5th stage is the, by far, most dangerous stage of this year’s edition.
 
“Today, we’ll ride many of the cobblestone sectors of Paris-Roubaix, which is in themselves very dangerous. But now it looks like we will have to face them in the wet. For sure we will see crashes and splits in the peloton and some of the favorites will undoubtly lose time”, says Daniele Bennati and continues:
 
“So for us it’s all about staying in the absolute front of the peloton keeping Alberto out of any kind of trouble if that’s even possible on a stage like this. But we are motivated and I can see that all the guys are in a really good shape. Plus we have the best possible material in the world in our Specialized Roubaix bikes to deal with the cobbles”.
 
Daniele Bennati describes the 5th stage as a lottery. Even if the team does everything correct, no one can foresee what will happen in the next corner or on the next sector of cobbles. But the stronger the team, the better the chances are of escaping unharmed.
 
“Michael Mørkøv, Matteo Tosatto and I, we are experienced when it comes to the northern classics and this is one of the stages, where we will have to show why we’re on the team. But this is not a classics race, this is a stage in the Tour with a lot of riders that have very little experience in riding in this terrain. Many riders in the peloton have never raced on the cobblestones and today they will have to do it in some very bad conditions”, concludes Daniele Bennati.