We survived through the first stressful days

Roman and his Tinkoff-Saxo teammates have the first four days at the Tour behind them. The riders of the Russian squad came out of the stressful stages unscathed and they continue at full strength.
“We have a very stressful beginning behind us. The most important thing is that nobody from out team got hurt and I hope that the most stressful stages are behind us. I expect that from tomorrow on the atmosphere in the peloton will be more relaxed. The Etixx has a well-balanced team, they should control the race and I hope that things won´t get crazy. Even so, the Tour is very unpredictable and you have to be on alert all the time,” said Roman.
He enjoyed riding over the cobblestones today. “I liked it a lot. We were out of luck a little bit just before the final stretch because we got pushed out and dropped back. It happened when a group of riders was riding in the front and it cost us a lot of energy to get back. Especially Sagan and Bennati did a fantastic work. I rode behind Alberto just in case he needed a bike change. Luckily, it was not necessary,” revealed Roman.
During the Monday´s stage he was involved in a small incident himself when he did not negotiate one of the bends and ended up in a ditch. “Unfortunately, the tarmac was a little bit slippery there. I did not want to crash so I headed into a ditch. I went over my handlebars and bumped my knee a little bit but I made a soft landing, quickly got back on my bike and managed to catch the group.”