Vingegaard hammers home advantage with solo win on Paris-Nice stage 5

Jonas Vingegaard delivered a solo exhibition in the Ardèche to win stage 5 of Paris-Nice in Colombier-le-Vieux and extend his commanding lead atop the overall standings.

Already a winner at Uchon the previous day, Vingegaard figured that attack was the best form of defence on the rugged finale to stage 5. After a stint of pace-making from Visma | Lease a Bike teammate Victor Campenaerts, Vingegaard accelerated with intent a kilometre from the summit of the Côte de Saint-Jean-de-Muzols.

There were still 21km to race, but the result was never in doubt from here. Vingegaard cruised clear over the summit, and he would pile on the pressure on the following category 2 climb of Côte de Saint-Barthélemy-le-Plain, where he extended his lead to almost two minutes with 8km to go.

By then, the seven-strong chasing group had long since given up on pursuing Vingegaard, and they were now focused on attacking and counter-attacking one another in search of the minor placings.

Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) gave lone pursuit in the finale to take second on the stage, 2:01 down, while Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) led the rest of the GC group home at 2:20.

Vingegaard cruised up the final, unclassified ascent to the line and he even had time to chat amiably with Marc Reef in the Visma team car before he entered the final kilometre of this procession. He now holds a lead of more than three minutes on Daniel Martinez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in the overall standings.

The weather conditions were mercifully kinder than they had been on Wednesday’s windswept epic, but there was another bracing start to the action for the Paris-Nice peloton, which covered more than 50km in the first hour of racing.

The day’s break eventually took shape on the Côte de Lentilly after over 60km, with Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Josh Tarling (Ineos), Remi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ United), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar) forging clear.

Movistar wanted more, however, and Iván Romeo and Lorenzo Milesi would soon bridge across in the company of Victor Campenaerts (Visma | Lease a Bike). The reinforced group of eight would build a lead of 1:40, but that gap would start to contract on the approach to the three climbs in the finale.

By then, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) had abandoned the race, with Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Milan Fretin (Cofidis) also among those to climb off in this most attritional Paris-Nice.

The break began to fragment on the Côte de Séchereas with 36km to go, where Cepeda pressed on alone, while the peloton moved ever closer to the remnants of the move. Bruno Armirail had whittled down the field to just 25 riders on behalf of Vingegaard, but it was striking that the Frenchman was now the only teammate still by the race leader’s side until Campenaerts dropped back from the break.

Ineos initially took up the reins for Kévin Vauquelin on the following Côte de Saint-Jean-de-Muzols before Campenaerts hit the front for Vingegaard, and his effort brought Cepeda back with 21km remaining.

That was the prelude to the inevitable Vingegaard attack, which came just over a kilometre from the top of the climb. By then, Daniel Martinez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) had already shown signs of struggling, and the front group now splintered completely as riders scrambled in pursuit of Vingegaard.

Martinez would eventually join the chasers over the other side, but by then, Vingegaard was already in a race of his own and the rest were riding for second place.