The Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl takes yet another win this season, this one perhaps the most impressive as he was the fastest on the second day of Paris-Nice. Fabio Jakobsen beat Wout van Aert in a close sprint where Jumbo tried to surprise.
KOM leader Matthew Holmes and Philippe Gilbert (Lotto Soudal) set off in the breakaway early in the day together with Alexis Gougeard (B&B Hotels-KTM), a move that has gotten a surprisingly large lead of 6 minutes in it's maximum. The day was marked by the expected crosswind action, which took off with just under 150 kilometers to go with Wout van Aert present in a crash.
It were with 90 kilometers to go that big splits started to emerge, as several crashes dealt damage to the peloton, several groups started to come together and try to reel back the head group which quickly caught the breakaway. A sizeable peloton still emerged in the final 45 kilometers as one of the chasing groups came back. Relative calm was found afterwards.
In the final kilometers Stefan Bissegger stirred the peloton with an attack that look threatening but ended cancelled as many riders bridged across. With 7.3 kilometers to go the Swiss attacked once again and this time alone, with a small peloton led by INEOS not putting on maximum effort for a chase. With 3 kilometers to go Quick-Step put the three classics riders to the front to make sure Jakobsen would have a chance to go for the win.
The Belgian team did their job successfully, but in the final 400 meter Laporte launched his move with van Aert in the wheel, the leadout was perfect but Jakobsen had the legs to follow and then outsprint van Aert in the final meters.
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