Team Visma | Lease a Bike has had a very mixed day at Paris-Nice, as once again they finish second and see the race lead change. Victim of a crash earlier in the day, Jonas Vingegaard failed to have the legs in the finale and cracked, losing key time. Matteo Jorgenson is the new race leader after a strong performance on the final climb, where Lenny Martínez was the strongest to take the stage win.
The start of the stage was very fast, fruit of a day that could've potentially gone for a breakaway. Ultimately many made their effort to try and form a breakaway, but it was a small move from Ben Swit and Thibaud Gruel that ended up forming the escapee group. The duo never threatened the peloton.
But it wasn't a calm down behind, as race leader Jonas Vingegaard himself went down with just over 80 kilometers to go. The Visma rider didn't suffer big injuries but the mishap didn't bring any positive news. With 43 kilometers to go, exactly as had happened yesterday, Tobias Foss of INEOS launched an attack bridging across to Swift in the head of the race. He then set off by himself forming the new head of the race as the former breakaway was caught.
In the penultimate climb of the day the pace was very hard in the peloton, and the same was said of the uphill intermediate sprint where Florian Lipowitz went on and snatched two seconds in the important fight for the podium.
Foss was caught before the final climb and the fight into it was brutal, with Lidl-Trek and Visma fighting to enter in front (although Jonas Vingegaard slid back the peloton before the start of the ascent). Axel Zingle and then Brandon McNulty hit the front then working for Almeida.
Matteo Jorgenson then spent most of the climb in the front of the group, in the ultra-steep gradients it was all about the legs. Jorgenson pushed the pace all the way to the line, and in the final meters only Lenny Martínez had the legs to really explode out of the American's wheel to go on and take an impressive stage win. Clément Champoussin finished second and Jorgenson was third, climbing back into the race lead. João Almeida struggled and lost some seconds, whilst Vingegaard had a very difficult time and lost around 25 seconds at the line to his teammate (including bonifications).
1 | Martinez Lenny | Bahrain Victorious | 02:36:23 |
2 | Champoussin Clément | XDS Astana Team | + 03 |
3 | Jorgenson Matteo | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | + 03 |
4 | Tejada Harold | XDS Astana Team | + 03 |
5 | Lipowitz Florian | Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe | + 06 |
6 | Almeida Joao | UAE Team Emirates-XRG | + 07 |
7 | McNulty Brandon | UAE Team Emirates-XRG | + 11 |
8 | Van Wilder Ilan | Soudal Quick-Step | + 16 |
9 | Sheffield Magnus | INEOS Grenadiers | + 16 |
10 | Paret-Peintre Aurélien | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | + 18 |
11 | Alaphilippe Julian | Tudor Pro Cycling Team | + 20 |
12 | Storer Michael | Tudor Pro Cycling Team | + 20 |
13 | Arensman Thymen | INEOS Grenadiers | + 22 |
14 | Martin-Guyonnet Guillaume | Groupama-FDJ | + 22 |
15 | Castrillo Pablo | Movistar Team | + 26 |
16 | Vingegaard Jonas | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | + 26 |
17 | Skjelmose Mattias | Lidl-Trek | + 28 |
18 | Gall Felix | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | + 35 |
19 | Jegat Jordan | Team TotalEnergies | + 38 |
20 | Silva Thomas | Caja Rural-Seguros RGA | + 41 |
21 | O'Connor Ben | Team Jayco-AlUla | + 41 |
22 | Zimmermann Georg | Intermarché-Wanty | + 45 |
23 | Vergallito Luca | Alpecin-Deceuninck | + 45 |
24 | Romeo Iván | Movistar Team | + 45 |
25 | Schachmann Max | Soudal Quick-Step | + 54 |
26 | García Raúl | ARKEA-B&B HOTELS | + 54 |
27 | Barta William | Movistar Team | + 59 |
I was wondering what really happened, if he was just not yet peaking at this time of the year, or if this just wasn't going to be his year, but apparently the accident affected him.
And considering the details coming out, I’d like to hear from all those mocking his annoyance of having to ride in yesterday’s weather, don’t think they’d have ridden to the end that way with a probable broken hand. Also, he was only one of a very large number equally critical that NOBODY criticised, including Jorgenson, Sheffield and the peleton spokesman. O’connor was probably the most upset by it all but doesn’t seem to have spoken about it?