Jonathan Milan tries to hide disappointment after winning the sprint for fifth: "In a certain sense I'm happy that a track rider like Benjamin won, he deserves it"

Jonathan Milan can't be satisfied with the outcome of Giro d'Italia stage 5. In a stage that was meant for the sprinters, a late breakaway of four proved to have been stronger than the peloton and held onto a tight gap, allowing Benjamin Thomas, Milan's friend from track, to complete the Wednesday's upset.

"Yes, in the end we got close," the Lidl-Trek sprinter told Rai after the stage. "In a certain sense I'm happy that a track rider like Benjamin won, he deserves it. But when you get there and smell the victory, you feel good, you worked well in the last km and you moved well, obviously you're sad. The race is not over today, we will have other possibilities, we close one door and open another."

According to Milan, some teams could've done more to catch the escapees. "I have many things to say, but let's let the images speak. We used our whole team, perhaps a little bit of help was missing at the end. If perhaps someone had joined us earlier we might have been able to catch them. We all knew that there were some great engines ahead, we needed to start earlier."