Thibaut Pinot shuts down potential Maglia Azura criticism: "I don't think I'm wasting any energy at the moment"

Thibaut Pinot successfully defends his blue jersey in slippery stage 5 by sneaking into the early breakaway himself and collecting another 10 points which sees him extend his lead ahead of Amanuel Ghebrezabhier by to now 14 points of advantage over the Eritrean climber. And he does so without even tapping into his reserves according to his own words.

"I don't think I'm wasting any energy at the moment. I'm having fun, and it also allows me to think about other things and to have this back-up plan if things go wrong in the general classification," explains the French climber at the microphone of Eurosport.

Thibaut Pinot also came back to the crashes that marked the end of this stage, one of which happened directly in front of him right at the start of the day. "I was lucky not to fall. We knew there would be a big risk of falling today, it was stressful and I think everyone is happy to be on the bus tonight. The Italian roads are very beautiful, but when it rains, the roads are slippery. It's Italy, it's like that," he concludes.

Thibaut Pinot needs to remain sharp, because although his lead appears very luxurious, tomorrow's stage 6 will offer up to 27 points into KOM classification that will be likely distributed between breakaway of the day. The Frenchman keeps his cards open, however without spending too much energy has already built himself a comfortable lead in the KOM classification lead.