Having crashed twice and hurt his knee, Bryan Coquard finished 8th in stage 5 of the Tour de France and was relieved to have avoided the crash which caused the abandonment of Nacer Bouhanni early in the stage.

Keeping the many crashes in mind, Bryan Coquard was pleased not to have been forced out of the race.

"I had two crashes but luckily it is just a bit of road rash," he told L'Equipe before looking at his right knee: "Well, I hit it. I will put some ice on it and then I will be ready for tomorrow."

He was close to the crash that ender Nacer Bouhanni's race.

"The front wheel of a rider slid on on a descent. Everyone behind him crash as it was extremely nervous."

Coquard tried his hand in the sprint where he had to settle for 8th.

"The crashes did not deprive me of victory," he said. "I missed a better position. With Yoyo (his teammate Yohann Gene),, I decided to be in the wheel of Cavendish. It would maybe have been better to wait and let Yoyo make his effort with 500m to go."

More a puncheur than a real sprinter, Coquad hopes for a better result tomorrow.

"This is an uphill finish that I have had in mind for some time."