Paris-Nice stage 5 Live – A rolling day with a steep uphill finish

Neilson Powless is one rider trying to get into the break. He’ll have more freedom to do so having dropped out of GC contention yesterday.

The riders are done descending, and are on flat roads for now. This could change the type of rider best equipped to get up the road.

Kobe Goossens was at the front of the race briefly, but he, like ever other attacker so far, was brought back. 

Guillaume Martin has just made it back into the peloton, having had a mechanical earlier. The Frenchman is in line for a high overall finish having finished 16th yesterday, moving him up to 16th on GC.

Here’s a first look at the riders out on the road.

180KM TO GO

Plenty of attacks are being made, but nothing is sticking.

None of those riders had previously taken any points, so the KOM rankings remain as they were:

1 João Almeida 20

2 Thomas Gachignard 17

3 Alexandre Delettre 12 

4 Jonas Vingegaard 10

5 Andreas Leknessund 9

He took three points in the King of the Mountains Classification, with Guillermo Thomas Silva two and Georg Steinhauser one. 

Kobe Goossens (Intermarché-Wanty) is the first rider to the top of the climb.

Some riders are falling out of the peloton already, incuding Fabio Jakobsen.

CÔTE DE SAINT-POLGUES

There’s a chance for riders with strong climbing legs to go clear, as they ascend the day’s first climb, the 1.5km Côte de Saint-Polgues, averaging 5.6%.

190KM TO GO

The peloton is still together, with no break having been formed. 

Here were the jersey wearers at the start of the stage – albeit with their jerseys covered up, what with the cold weather. Jonas Vingegaard is in yellow, Tim Merlier in green, and Matthias Skjelmose in white after yesterday’s GC shake up.

There are already lots of attacks firing out of the peloton, but nobody is being allowed up the road easily. 

Once again it’s very cold out, just like yesterday when the weather got so bad the organisers deemed it necessary to neutralise the race for a while. Some riders weren’t happy with how that was handled – more on that later.

197KM TO GO

And they’re off!

Most of the climbing is done during the second half of the stage, however. Though they will climb an uncategorised rise from the start, and take on the category three Côte de Saint-Polgues shortly after, the majority of the opening 20km are downhill, while the second of the day’s seven official climbs isn’t tackled until over halfway into the stage.

On such a hilly route, and with so many riders now out of GC contention, you sense this could be a day for the breakaway to succeed. We can therefore expect a real battle to get up the road once the flag is waved.

He and the rest of the bunch have begun riding, and are passing through the neutralised section.

There was a time when a climb like this had Julian Alaphilippe’s name written all over it, but the Frenchman isn’t quite the force he once was, and hasn’t won a race since last July. Nevertheless, he’s shown some signs of form, and must still be counted among the candidates for the stage win.

The final climb to the finish lasts 1.7km, and averages a brutal 10.8%. It’s a ‘wall’ in a similar vein to the Mur de Huy, and will require strong climbing legs, a quick punch, and good timing so as not to fade before the top.

You join us as we await the beginning of stage five, a long slog of about 200km through hilly terrain that will end with a steep wall of Côte de Notre-Dame-de-Sciez.