"I wasn't even reaching a pace that I would have maintained in training" - Romain Grégoire's legs completely explode in Tour de Suisse queen stage

While Julian Alaphilippe and Kevin Vauquelin flied towards GC podium at the Tour de Suisse, their compatriot, current leader of the GC, Romain Grégoire was suffering further behind. Ultimately, the leader of Groupama - FDJ had to wave goodbye to the yellow jersey as he lost nearly 7 minutes and dropped all the way to 13th overall.

"I don't feel anything anymore. I'm completely empty. I had less strength than I hoped," the broken Romain Grégoire told L'Equipe after the stage.

"Yesterday (Wednesday), I saved it (the yellow jersey) but I went quite far. Today (Thursday) I no longer had the legs," the Frenchman admitted that previous days took a toll on his performance on stage 5. "I was completely dead."

"From the start, I knew it wasn't going to work. I wasn't even reaching a pace that I would have maintained in training. Valentin (Madouas) helped me limit the damage on the flat, but I was left to my own devices [on final climbs]. I hadn't had any illusions about the general classification, but I was hoping to limit the damage more than that."