#post stage

[billinlovee]

[yellowshoeswhitehandlebartape]

After all bad luck that we had, we got through the day well. When I crashed I was perfectly positioned, within the first ten of the bunch, but some rider hit me from the left side, broke my gearing and made me hit the tarmac - it was quite a blow. I spent some seconds on the ground hurting, but Rojas came fast to give me his bike and all the team was sensational, always by my side. I had to do the final 60 kilometers, with all cobblestones on the route, with a seatpost 2.5cm smaller than mine, but it was really impossible to switch bikes before the finish, because it was 'full gas.' We must stay happy, because even though we lost quite a bit of time against Nibali, we didn't concede much to others, and even won some seconds to riders like Alberto. It's obvious that Nibali is proving to be strong, as well as Fuglsang and all his team, but this has just started and there's all to play for in this Tour. Anything can happen. On the other hand, I wasn't aware of what happened to Froome. I did see Zandio crashed, but not him. I was so focused on my racing that I couldn't realize about anything happening around. I want to thank the team again because they were brilliant today. Before the crash, we were in perfect position, and they took their hearts out for me afterwards. I don't have any bruises, but banged my knee, hip and head, and even though it doesn't seem like anything important, we will see how my body responds tomorrow.

Alejandro Valverde after the thrilling but scary to watch stage 5 featuring cobbles and rain.