Paris-Nice stage 5 - As it happened live

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Olav Kooij emerged victorious in a bunch sprint on a quiet day

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Hello and welcome along to our live coverage of Paris-Nice. Yesterday's stage saw a dramatic victory for Tadej Pogačar and humbling for Jonas Vingegaard, setting things up for the final weekend on the French Riviera. But first we've got to get there, and this, the longest stage of the race, takes us 212.5km due south to Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, where the most likely eventuality is a bunch sprint.

The riders have gathered on on the start line and we'll be underway in a few minutes. We have around 15 minutes in a neutral zone before the stage proper kicks off. Blue skies, light cloud, and not much wind - we're getting closer to the sun.

Before we get going, now's the time to catch up on yesterday's action, and there was plenty of it. 

And to help you digest it all, can I point you in the way of Barry Ryan's typically perceptive analysis of the balance of power between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard. 

The riders are on their way towards kilometre-zero.

Today's stage features some early hills, then 110km of pan-flat, then a couple more hills. The last one tops out 30km from the line, and isn't overly difficult, meaning most sprinters will fancy their chances today.

We're off!

Jonas Gregaard attacks, and that's no surprise. The Uno-X rider has been in the breakaway most days and has built up a big lead in the mountains classification, which he's hoping to buttress today.

Gregaard is joined by Sandy Dujardin (TotalEnergies) and it looks like those two riders are away.

The pair quickly open 90 seconds as they hit the day's first climb, the category-2 Côte de Coise (1.5km at 8.6%).

Gregaard is first to the top of the climb, adding five points to his mountains tally. Dujardin didn't have a single point before today.

They're straight onto the next climb, the Côte de l'Aubépin, another cat-2 test (although another one you sense would be cat-3 in the Tour de France). It's 4.9km at 5.1%.

Here's a first shot of our breakaway duo.

The gap was fairly modest as the peloton kept a high tempo at the start but it's now starting to grow ot.

Gregaard once again helps himself to the maximum five points at the top of the second climb. That's 10 points for the day and he could add three more soon when they hit the next cat-3 climb. 

The gap appears to have been pegged now around the five-minute mark. The riders are on their way downhill, towards the cat-3 climb and the subsequent drag, after which it's very flat for a very long time.

Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) has been third (first from the peloton) on both climbs so far. He didn't have any mountains points at the start of the day but now has four. Gregaard just seems to far in front, though, for anyone but Pogačar to consider taking the jersey.

The break hit the third climb, the cat-3 Côte de Trèves, which is 2.3km at 6%

Maximum points again for Gregaard - this time it's 3.

This is how the mountains classification now looks

The road continues to rise here before we dip down onto the plains. 

The riders nip downhill and reach the banks of the Rhône, which they'll track for the best part of 100km now. 

There's also a headwind blowing up the Rhône, so these are not going to be the most exciting 100km you ever saw in your life. Poor salesmanship, but it's the truth.

And then there was one. Gregaard, having claimed 13 mountains points today, considers his work done. There are three more points on offer later but he decides that's not worth 130 more kilometres in the breakaway, and he decides to sit up and drift back to the peloton. 

Dujardin still has a lead of over five minutes, quite content to press on alone.

This stage is going to be shaped in the final 55km, with a pair of climbs that might just see the pure sprinters in trouble. The first is uncategorised as it's technically the intermediate sprint, but it's the Col du Devès, and it's followed by the Côte d'Aleyrac, which measures 4.5km at 4.3%. It's followed by a 30km run-in, so it's going to take quite the tear-up to permanently drop a significant number of riders.

Those who might be interested in making it hard include Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla), who's not going to win from a big bunch. In stage 2 winner Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) you have two riders who can win bunch sprints but can also get over climbs far better than pure sprinters. 

Even if it doesn't split, a hard pace can have an impact in dulling the legs for the final kick, especially on a stage that's 212.5km long. 

Pogacar back in yellow

Hopes for a tear-up might be dented by the headwind I mentioned, which would make it tricky for any selections to stay away beyond the climb in the last 30km. 

A little stat from the race organisers

Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins (Tour winners in 2011 and 2012) won stages of Paris-Nice but before they'd won the Tour. Chris Froome (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017) never raced Paris-Nice, Vincenzo Nibali (2014) was more of a Tirreno man. Meanwhile, Geraint Thomas (2018) and Egan Bernal (2019) have both won Paris-Nice overall without winning a stage (and before winning the Tour). 

Can you tell there's not much happening in the race?

Dujardin is losing time now. He's down to three minutes.

One of this week's top stories has been the beef between Colnago and Tom Boonen. The former Classics star suggested the Italian bike brand, used by Paris-Nice leader Tadej Pogačar, was lagging behind other manufacturers in terms of aerodynamics.

Into the final 100km (I know) and Dujardin's lead comes down towards the two-minute mark.

I honestly won't be offended if you decide to hop over to join Daniel Ostanek for our live coverage of Tirreno-Adriatico - there's a punchy finishing circuit coming up soon. Here's the link. Better still, do that thing where you open it in a new tab.

Dujardin's lead is down to 90 seconds. He's just gone past his hometown, which would explain why he's happy to do all this to himself.

Dujardin is shipping time quickly now and it's not going to be long before this race is all together again.

All together

Here was our intrepid solo breakaway artist, Sandy Dujardin.

And this has been the mood in the peloton for much of the day

Lotto-Dstny are leading the peloton as we approach the two climbs, where they may look to shed the bunch of some sprinters in the interests of Arnaud De Lie.

AG2R move to the front. Teams are getting organised but this is still preamble.

Jonas Vingegaard comes back to the peloton after a mechanical. He suffered badly yesterday, after launching the first attack. Here's reaction from the Jumbo camp. 

We start to climb. We're going uphill now on a drag ahead of the Col du Devès.

It's still all calm out there, with DSM, FDJ, Jayco, Lotto, and UAE occupying front positions in a peloton that's spread across the full width of the road.

We're onto the climb proper now. It's not a categorised climb, and it is in fact the intermediate sprint. A reminder, as if Pogačar needed one, that bonus seconds are once again available here. 6-4-2 for the first three. 

Slow and steady so far up the climb.

And now things start to heat up as we head into the final kilometre...

FDJ are interested here. David Gaudu is second overall and sniffing bonuses.

UAE are up there and Pogacar is going to go again here.

Pogacar launches! Gaudu is being led out by sprinter Arnaud Démare

Gaudu gets there first! It looks like Démare is second, with Pogačar third. Movistar's Jorgenson was the only other real contestant. Vingegaard didn't bother.

Pogacar gave Démare a look there after the line. He found himself boxed in a little by the French sprinter. Gaudu squeezed through and helped himself. 

Bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint

Having started the day second overall at 10 seconds down on Pogačar, Gaudu is now just six seconds in arrears. 

Well, apart from that flurry in the final few hundred metres, that non-climb passed by without much incident, certainly in terms of the overall complexion of the stage. We'll see if anyone lights it up on the Côte d'Aleyrac, but you sense that if they were going to, they'd have laid some groundwork on the Devès. 

Alpecin, Jayco, DSM, Lotto have some of the front positions once again.

Primoz Roglic has won stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico. Here's the link you need for the report, results, and photos from Italy. 

Trek hit the front and raise the pace!

Finally, some racing...

We're about to hit the Côte de l'Aleyrac (4.5km at 4.3%) and it's the only obstacle between here and a bunch sprint at the finish. Trek-Segafredo have stage 2 winner Mads Pedersen on board and they want to burn some of his pure sprint rivals on this climb.

We wondered whether this climb would be hard enough, or close enough to the finish, to do any real damage. We had further doubts given the headwind. But Trek-Segafredo are going to give this a go. 

A few riders are starting to get dropped already.

Jayco-AlUla - working for Matthews - have posted a rider towards the front to collaborate with Trek.

Jayco take it up now with two riders.

There's not much damage being done here, after all. 

We're into the final kilometre of the climb and Trek and Jayco haven't done enough damage here. Almost every sprinter of note is still in this big peloton. 

Here's Gregaard again. He's off for more mountains points as we near the top.

Gregaard leads the race over the Côte de l'Aleyrac, adding three more points to his mountains classification tally. That's 16 - the maximum possible - for the day, after his foray in the breakaway earlier, and the polka-dots rest comfortably on his shoulders.

A near-full peloton comes over the top. Trek and Jayco tried, but we're heading for a proper bunch sprint. Even if one or two did get tailed off, they'd get back in easily here. There are still 30km to go.

This is how the mountains classification now looks

It's bunched up again and spread across the road. We're heading for a slow and steady build-up to our sprint. Sorry.

The wind gods have really not smiled on the Paris-Nice organisers this week. We've had no real crosswinds to speak of - not the kind to cause a classic Paris-Nice echelon day anyway - and now we have a headwind on the longest day of the race.

A little more about our run-in. It's fairly uncomplicated for the most-part, but we do have a couple of late roundabouts, including one at 300m to go like we had on stage 2. This on is also straight on, one way round, with the chicane effect sure to string out and possibly fragment the bunch just before the sprinters look to open the taps. 

18.5km to go and it's still all calm.

Here's the race leader

15km to go and we're just waiting now to get closer to the finish, before the fight for position begins.

Let's take a look at some of the contenders

Here comes the wind-up. It's not frantic but the pace has been lifted. Alpecin, UAE, FDJ, Trek, Jayco, and Jumbo have riders on the front. It's still spread across the road.

7km to go and now we have some out-of-the-saddle action. At last.

Jumbo look good on the left. They're working for Kooij.

Here's the final 5km. False flat downhill to lead in, so it's going to be fast. It's also heading east for this last stretch, so more of a crosswind than headwind.

Tim Declercq appears in the middle as QuickStep set up their train. They were great on stage 1 but all over the place on stage 2.

5km to go now, taking us onto that graphic you can see below. It's still relatively calm and spready right across the road. 

We're going to get some roundabouts and traffic furniture as we head into town in a couple of kilometres.

More of a kick out now!

JUmbo and UAE come through best through a tight corner. Pogacar is well to the fore.

QuickStep have also retained the front with several riders.

Uno-X take control now!

Kristoff is there in waiting in his funny old revamped TT helmet.

Declercq and a Uno-X man battling side by side here.

2.5km to go and Intermarche come from well back

Traffic island and the peloton splits in two vertically 

2km to go and QuickStep lose Declercq but still have two in front of Merlier

Lotto scramble to move De Lie up on the left.

1.5km to go and Trek appear at the front

Big wide road but roundabout coming. Ineos rider on the front

1km to go and the rroundabout splits the bunch vertically again.

Attack from the Ineos rider out the roundabout. It's Swift.

Jumbo dragging it back with 350 to go

Through the roundabout and Pedersen gets the jump off the Jumbo lead out

But Kooij comes past him...and wins!

Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) wins stage 5 of Paris-Nice

Again, position out of the roundabout was all-important. Pedersen split the Jumbo lead-out but didn't have enough to hold off Kooij this time around. Trentin for UAE was also well-positioned and bagged fourth.

In third place was Merlier, who arguably showed the fastest kick to the line, but simply started from too far back. 

Sam Bennett was there or thereabouts today but didn't appear to have the legs to challenge for the podium as Max Kanter (Movistar) rounded out the top five.

Let's hear from the winner

And now we can hear from the yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar

The finish line shot

Here's our report page, where you can also find the full results and photos

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