2016 Tour de France – Stage 5

Limoges – Le Lioran---216 km

Brent checked in from the team’s hotel in Murat, France, after one of the most exciting days in the history of the BMC Racing Team. Teammate Greg Van Avermaet soloed out of a breakaway group to win Stage 5 Wednesday and grab the overall lead of the race. He now enjoys a more than five-minute margin and becomes only the second rider in team history to wear the coveted maillot jaune. In 2010 and 2011, Brent was a teammate at the Tour to Cadel Evans, who wore the yellow jersey both years and won the race overall in 2011.

“I am pretty tired from today’s stage. But obviously we are pretty happy here at the BMC Racing Team. It is a pretty special day when you win. It was a hard start and a really tough stage. Greg fought hard to get in a good breakaway and showed he was the strongest by going to the end. It was a hard day no matter where you finished, or no matter what part of the race you were in. So seeing what Greg did in riding away by himself like that was really inspiring and exciting for us to have him take yellow.

“I am still trying to recover from the crash I had the first day. I hit pretty hard. I am feeling better each day, but still trying to be conscious of the healing my body needs to do and the energy that it takes and the long race we have ahead. The past few days, I have kind of been on teamwork duty a little bit earlier in the race. It was still a long day for me today, working up until about 180 kilometers, riding in the wind taking care of the guys – Richie Porte and Tejay van Garderen – as best I could. From there, it is just a matter of finding a group of guys who are going at a good pace and going to make it to the finish without taking too much out of me that I need to. It is a balance between the spirit of taking care of the team and putting self-ambitions aside to give my body enough time to heal and take care of these injuries.”