Klöden out-sprints Sanchez to win stage 5

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Andreas Klöden (RadioShack) won stage five at Paris-Nice in Vernoux-en-Vivarais from an elite eight-man group of general classification contenders.

It was a rare road stage victory for the 35-year-old German as he out-sprinted Olympic road champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil-DCM) in the 193km stage. Klöden's last individual win was in a time trial at the 2009 Giro del Trentino, but his last road stage victory came in 2005 during stage five of the Bayern-Rundfahrt.

"I cannot remember when I won my last race in a sprint," Klöden said. "It is not really my specialty but Jani Brajkovic told me to get on his wheel, that he would lead the sprint for me and I thought I might as well try.

"I never thought I would be able to beat Samuel Sanchez in a sprint. It's great for me since I also get the yellow jersey. It's also great for the team. I am so happy."

Under the impetus of Estonian Rein Taaramae (Cofidis), the final selection from a 25-man lead group emerged over the summit of the stage's seventh and final categorised climb, the category 1 Col de la Mûre.

As Taaramae crested the summit only nine kilometres from the finish line he was joined by Klöden, his RadioShack teammate Janez Brajkovic, Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad), Xavier Tondo Volpini (Movistar Team), Robert Kiserlovski (Astana), Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

After making quick work of the steep descent, the eight-man lead group powered through to the finish 18 seconds ahead of the first chasers, headed by 2009 Paris-Nice winner Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank).

In addition to picking up the stage win, Klöden, the 2000 Paris-Nice champion, earned the race leader's yellow jersey, and leads Samuel Sanchez by four seconds and Carrara by six seconds overall as all eight members of the winning break now occupy the top eight overall on general classification.

Overnight leader Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) was dropped early on the slopes of the final climb and surrendered his yellow jersey as he finished the stage 15:36 off the pace.

"I came to this race with ambitions but I never thought to take the yellow jersey," said Klöden. "On the other hand, up to now I've had a good season. In Mallorca and Algarve I already saw that my condition was better than the other years.

"I am lucky with the weather too. I hate cold and rain, but here in Paris-Nice we can't complain about the weather. I survived the first nervous days without major crashes. Today I was ready for a good performance. A victory is of course more than expected."

One day after taking over the yellow jersey, Klöden faces a 27km individual time trial and considers Tony Martin, fourth overall at 10 seconds, his biggest rival.

"It will be hard to win this Paris-Nice, as tomorrow we have a very hard time trial and we know Tony Martin will be very good," said Klöden. "It's hard to beat him in a TT and he was very good today too. I will try everything and we will see tomorrow."

Another day, another seven categorised climbs

The first serious break of the day occurred on the slopes of the category 1 Col de la Croix de Chaubouret as Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) went on the attack. The Dutchman crested the summit of the 10km climb alone after 54km of racing, while a four-man chase group containing Hubert Dupont (AG2R La Mondiale), Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ), David Lopez Garcia (Movistar) and Christophe Le Mevel (Garmin-Cervelo) followed at 35 seconds.

The chasers made contact with Westra and Romain Hardy (Bretagne-Schuller) jumped across from the peloton to form an escape group of six.

The leading sextet stayed together across the next climb, the category 3 Côte de Saint-Jeure-d'Ay at 96km, and at the summit their advantage stood at a little over one minute after having reached a maximum gap of more than four minutes. On the descent, however, the escapees extended their lead back over two minutes up on the field.

On the fourth of seven climbs for the stage, the category 2 Col de Montreynaud, the six man break split on the 7.4km ascent as Westra, Lopez Garcia and Dupont dropped their breakaway companions. Jeannesson, Le Mevel and Hardy were swept up as Westra crossed the summit first ahead of Lopez Garcia and Dupont.

The lead trio were quickly on to the category 3 Côte de Vernoux-en-Vivarais where Westra again topped the summit first at 144km. Lopez Garcia, however, soon lost contact leaving Westra and Dupont to tackle the penultimate Col de Comberon climb, whose summit stood 41km from the finish, with a 40-second advantage.

Westra soon dropped Dupont on the 4.4km category 3 climb, but the Frenchman clawed his way back to the Dutchman and Westra again took top honours at the KOM, just prior to being absorbed by an FDJ-led peloton. For his efforts on the stage, Westra moved into second overall on the mountains classification.

A furious pace was set by FDJ on the descent of the Col de Comberon which created a new seven-man break containing four of their riders: Pierrick Fedrigo, Sandy Casar, Cédric Pineau and Jérémy Roy (FDJ), Yuriy Trofimov (Katusha Team), Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) and Simon Spilak (Lampre - ISD).

The seven pushed out their lead to 35 seconds, but as the peloton regrouped behind the escapees their gap steadily came down as Jens Voigt (Leopard Trek) took strong pulls in the chase effort.

The escape was eventually brought back with 16km remaining at the base of the day's final climb, the category 1 Col de la Mûre.

Sting in the tail

Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) immediately came to the fore and pushed the pace as the approximate 60-man peloton detonated on the steep early gradient, the most difficult part of the 7.6km climb. Vinokourov soon pulled the plug on his pace-making efforts, only to be replaced by teammate Rémy Di Gregorio.

As the lead group whittled down to about 20 of the general classification contenders, Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil-DCM) launched an attack halfway up the climb. The 31-year-old Italian was soon joined by Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) and the leading duo pushed their advantage out to 15 seconds.

The HTC-Highroad dynamic duo of Tejay Van Garderen and Tony Martin kept the pair in check, with the young American setting a steady tempo in the chasing effort.

Near the summit of the Col de la Mûre, just as Carrara and Kiserlovski were about to be absorbed, the Estonian Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) launched a blistering attack which drew out the final eight-man selection over the summit.

Taaramae took top honours at the KOM line and was joined by Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad), Xavier Tondo Volpini (Movistar Team), Robert Kiserlovski (Astana), Janez Brajkovic and Andreas Klöden (RadioShack), Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) for the lightning-quick descent to the finish in Vernoux-en-Vivarais.

The octet worked well together once the road flattened out in the run-in to the finish with Tony Martin taking a massive pull in the finale to ensure the nearest chase group would not make contact.

Brajkovic led-out the sprint with Klöden glued to his wheel and the German held off the late charge of Sanchez to take both the stage victory and yellow jersey.

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