Mads Pedersen wins wind-blown day at Paris-Nice; Visma explode peloton whilst Almeida and Martínez lose minutes

Stage 6 of Paris-Nice was the final flat day of the race but perhaps the one that opened up the biggest gaps between the contenders for overall victory. João Almeida, Lenny Martínez and Brandon McNulty lost almost minutes to the likes of Matteo Jorgenson, Mattias Skjelmose and Florian Lipowitz in the crosswinds; whilst Mads Pedersen won the final sprint between those who finished in front.

209 kilometers on the menu, and although it was the last flat stage of the race, by no means were the riders in for a relaxed day before a weekend in the mountains. Thomas Gachinard, Rémi Cavagna and Jakub Otruba formed the day's breakaway, which never got much of a lead as the peloton knew there would be strong tailwinds all day long that could make a chase very hard.

The fast pace in fact saw both Otruba and Gachinard pull the plug early on, leaving only Cavagna isolated in front still with 90 kilometers to go. But the Frenchman had company sooner than expected as Visma - now without Jonas Vingegaard who did not start the stage as a precaution - hit the front of the peloton in a crosswind section and decimated it.

This attack saw all six riders of the Dutch team make it to the 17-rider group that formed, including also six INEOS Grenadiers rider; Mads Pedersen and Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek; Matteo Sobrero and Florian Lipowitz of BORA and Max Schachmann. Cavagna was caught with 42 kilometers to go and later waited for the peloton.

In the uphill intermediate sprint Jorgenson went on to take another set of seconds, with Skjelmose and Lipowitz catching up with him. The group worked well together to build a gap of almost two minutes to the peloton that features riders such as João Almeida and Lenny Martínez.

Max Schachmann tried a late attack, but it ended up finishing in a sprint where the group's fastest battled for the win. Here, Mads Pedersen proved to be the strongest in the day, winning in the rain ahead of Joshua Tarling and Axel Zingle.