Etixx - Quick-Step accomplished their main goal at 192km Stage 5 from Saint-Etienne to Rasteau on Friday. They protected race leader Michal Kwiatkowski, who had only one second over Richie Porte (Team Sky) and three seconds over Geraint Thomas (Team Sky).
The team worked on the front all race long, and thanks to their pursuit along with other teams, Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), out of the original breakaway, fell a few hundred meters short of staying away until the line.
Davide Cimolai (Lampre-Merida) won the stage. Bryan Coquard (Europcar) was 2nd, and Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) was 3rd.
Kwiatkowski was 12th as the team's top finisher.
Etixx - Quick-Step looks next to the penultimate stage, 181.5km in distance, from Nence to Nice. There are six climbs of 2nd and 1st category, but there is a long descent, with technical sections, going into the final kilometers. There is a small climb before a downhill arrival.
"It was very fast today and nervous," Kwiatkowski said. "We passed 190 kilometers in four hours and 15 minutes, so that is proof it was a fast stage. But I am really happy with how the team rode for me today. They rode all day in the front, controlling the gap between the breakaway and the peloton, and then they made sure I could safely arrive at the finish. I kept the Yellow, which was the goal, and I have to thank my teammates for their good work. Tomorrow is already a difficult parcours and they predicted bad weather. So it's going to be tough. But, we are ready to defend the jersey and we will keep on fighting. We will see what we can do with the good team spirit that we have here. We will see where I will be in the GC after tomorrow's stage. I will just try my best with whatever situation there is in the final tomorrow, and then we will see what I can do in the mountain TT on Sunday."