Santiago Buitrago solos to stunning stage win at Paris-Nice 2024 as Luke Plapp moves into the Maillot Jaune

Bahrain - Victorious' Santiago Buitrago has danced his way to a brilliant solo victory on stage 4 of Paris-Nice 2024 with Luke Plapp moving into the overall lead of the race.

A strong, four-man break that included Stefan Bissegger, Jasper De Buyst, King of the Mountains Mathieu Burgaudeau and Christian Scaroni broke free early on.

With BORA - hansgrohe intent on making it a difficult day though, the gap was never allowed to really grow although many riders struggled early to keep contact at the back of the peloton.

Already with 55km still to go, Bissegger and De Buyst were swept up by the peloton and a few km later, Burgaudeau too was caught, leaving just Scaroni some 30 seconds clear with 45km to go.

Scaroni did brilliantly to survive long enough to claim the maximum points at the fifth King of the Mountains climb of the day, with 35km to go, he was caught.

With bonus seconds on offer at the intermediate sprint, Remco Evenepoel got the maximum 6 seconds with Primoz Roglic taking 4.

Luke Plapp decided to make a testing attack with 25km to go with the Australian soon joined by Santiago Buitrago as David Gaudu crashed behind attempting to take his jacket off.

Behind the leading duo, the chase was somewhat stalling with each team hoping another would do the brunt of the work. As the final, near-3km climb to the line began, Buitrago and Plapp's advantage over the chasers was 40 seconds.

Buitrago was the first of the leaders to attack, doing so with 1.2km to go and immediately dropping Plapp in the process. Starting the day 42 seconds down, the race lead was in the offering for the Colombian as he crossed the flamme rouge with a 43 second lead.

When Buitrago crossed the line in victory the clock started ticking. 11 seconds down was Plapp, good enough for the Maillot Jaune, with Mattias Skjelmose beating Evenepoel in a sprint for third.

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