Despite moving into the GC lead at Paris-Nice, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) believed racing should "never have continued" after brutal weather caused stage 4 to be neutralised inside the final 50 kilometres.
The stage was brought to a halt by race officials as snow and heavy rain continued to fall before the breakaway and peloton were guided slowly under neutralised conditions until 28.8km to go, where the racing resumed.
Riders tried everything to get the warmth back in their bodies, with Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) even holding onto one of the race motorbikes to try and return heat to his hands before the restart.
"I have quite mixed feelings today, or not even mixed feelings - I'm just not really happy at the moment because, in my opinion, we should never have raced this final, and we should never have continued when we did," Vingegaard told CyclingProNet after the finish.
"I wouldn't say [it was] too dangerous, but it was more that we were riding more than 10-12km in the downhill and going super slow, and everyone was freezing. Nobody could feel their brakes.
"Then we have five to 10 minutes to heat up again, but you don't really get the heat, and I still haven't gotten the heat back in my body. I'm still cold."
The conditions were so tough that several riders were left shaking in the freezing temperatures, with one TotalEnergies rider even forced to abandon the race due to suffering in the cold.
"The extremely difficult weather conditions left Steff Cras suffering from hypothermia, and he was forced to abandon the race," said TotalEnergies on X.
When the racing resumed and the stage reached the final climb to La Loge des Gardes, Vingegaard worked well with teammate and pre-stage race leader Matteo Jorgenson to mark attacks and try to control the group of favourites.
Vingegaard marked two bursts from Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) before launching away solo inside the final two kilometres. He got a gap but failed to show the same invincibility that his rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has in 2025, only extending out a gap of 10 seconds.
"I think it affects everyone that the weather is like this, and we were working super well together on the last climb, covering the attacks together," said Vingegaard. "I was feeling pretty good, so I also had the freedom to go for it."
João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) paced in the group behind to keep Vingegaard close, with Jorgenson in his wheel. However, when the final 100 metres arrived, Almeida was too strong for both of the Visma-Lease a Bike riders. He ultimately sprinted from behind and overtook Vingegaard just before the line to take the stage victory and make big gains on GC.
"Unfortunately for me, I was passed in the last 25 metres, and that's cycling, but it's also disappointing for me as well," said Vingegaard, who holds a five-second lead over Jorgenson in second and a 37-second advantage over Almeida in fifth heading into stage 5.
