Even though Andrew Talansky, now even bigger Tour de France podium contender as a consequence of highly dramatic happenings during yesterday’s cobbled stage, lost some precious time to mailot jaune Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), the 25-year old American was more than pleased to survive the carnage unscathed. Unlike many other GC contenders, supported by a strong Garmin-Sharp classics unit, this year’s Criterium du Dauphine winner managed to avoid any troubles on the wet cobbled roads from Ypres to Arenberg what put him in a good position to attack when the peloton hits the mountains.

Supported by Johan Vansummeren and Dutch national champion Sebastian Langeveld, Talansky finished the stage 2:02 down on Nibali, but ahead of the most of general classification contenders, like Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) or Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo).

"It was an epic day and one I'll remember for the rest of my life," Talansky said to the media at the Garmin-Sharp bus.

"It wasn't a day that could win the Tour but it absolutely was a day that you cold lose the Tour. We came through unscathed and in a good position.

"It went incredibly well for us. My team was with me all day. We brought a team that was well prepared for this stage. We had Sebastian Langeveld – a top ten in Paris-Roubaix and Johan Vansummeren – a Paris-Roubaix winner. They were with me in the last ten kilometres and I couldn't have asked for a better group of guys to get me through."

Thus, improving his position in the general classification to ninth, the 25-year old American expected this tendency to grow as soon as the first mountain stages arrive.

"I'm very pleased with that. If you look at the list of guys up there, a lot of them are going to be gone when we get to the mountains and aren't going to play a factor in the overall GC, so we're sitting pretty well," he said.

As the withdrawal of last year’s Tour de France champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) was certainly the most dramatic happening of yesterday’s fifth stage, Garmin-Sharp leader was sorry that the Kenyan-born rider is no longer in the race.

"It's really disappointing that Froome's out," he said.

"That's always a risk with a stage like this. I came through and I can say it was an epic day but it's really sad for the race as a whole as well as for Chris and Sky.

"There was panic the whole stage it was panic for 155km. I really had no idea of what happened behind me. I kept looking ahead of me and stayed with my guys. I took one little detour into the ditch but came away unscathed."