Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) was denied a mountain stage victory on stage 4 of Paris-Nice as João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) sprinted from behind to pip the Dane to the win atop La Loge des Gardes.
The Portuguese rider led the chase in a select lead group at the end of the 163km stage, with Vingegaard having gone up the road solo in the final 2km of the 6.7km closing climb.
Vingegaard was grimly hanging on in the final 500 metres, but Almeida punched past in the steep closing inclines to come through and claim the 14th triumph of his career.
The Dane and his teammate, race leader Matteo Jorgenson, had played a one-two game on the final climb, closing down attacks and controlling the race, before Vingegaard followed a Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) move at 2.5km to go before jumping clear on his own.
He held a small gap – never more than around 10 seconds – on the road, and it was an advantage that slimmed as he neared the finish line, with Almeida leading the charge and eventually accelerating past to score the win.
"I’m super happy. It was a hard day. A lot happened in this stage, and we had some snow on the course. But we never gave up. I think we deserved it and I’m very happy for it," Almeida said after the stage.
"I was feeling quite good. Of course, to be honest, I’m not the best guy with the cold temperatures. I was suffering with that, but I never gave up. The climb wasn’t steep enough and it was hard to make the group smaller. Jonas attacked and I wasn’t in the best position, but I gave my best and I’m super happy again.
"Yesterday was not our day. We had some setbacks,” Almeida said of the stage 3 team time trial. But yesterday was yesterday, and today was another opportunity. We needed to take the positives from yesterday, like I was feeling really good and did a really good effort. We lose as a team, and we win as a team and I think we deserve it today.
"I think we can [win Paris-Nice], but it’s not just up to me, you know? I think my shape is good and I feel good and I’m ready to show who João Almeida is. For sure, I’ll give my best."
Behind Vingegaard, another Dane, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), rounded out the stage podium, while Jorgenson finished in sixth place at six seconds down. As a result, and taking into account Vingegaard’s six bonus seconds, the American cedes the lead to his teammate and now lies in second overall at five seconds down.
Skjelmose is third overall at 33 seconds, while Almeida lies in fifth at a 37-second deficit, one place and one second down on fourth-placed Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
How it unfolded
After two sprint stages and a team time trial, stage 4 of Paris-Nice would bring the first GC challenge of the race. The peloton would tackle a mountainous 163.4km route from Vichy to La Loge des Gardes. Six climbs and 2,700 metres of ascent filled the stage, including the closing first-category climb (6.7km at 7.1%).
Attacks went from the very start of the day, which was an uphill run to the opening climb of the Côte de Lavoine (7.6km at 4%). It would take just under 20km for a move to get away with Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) among the eight-rider group.
The Norwegian climber would be joined in the break by Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), Thibault Guernalec (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis), Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost), Dion Smith (Intermarché-Wanty), Thomas Gachinard (TotalEnergies), and Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Visma-Lease A Bike, fresh off their TTT-winning effort on stage 3, took control at the head of the peloton, letting the break go three minutes up the road over the challenging early terrain.
On the road, Gachinard set out his stall as a mountain classification challenger, beating Leknessund and Moniquet to the top of the day’s first two climbs, the Côte de Lavoine and Côte de la Bruyère.
The Frenchman picked up six points there and added another three at the Côte de la Croix Bruyère before leading over the Côte du Canon, 51km from the line, to take his total to 14 points.
That put him two clear of KOM leader, his TotalEnergies teammate Alexandre Delettre, while back in the peloton Bahrain Victorious’ GC hope Santiago Buitrago crashed out of the race on a descent.
On the way up the Canon, Ineos Grenadiers sent two men – Josh Tarling and Tobias Foss – on an unexpected attack two minutes behind the break. Up front, Smith was the first to drop from the group, leaving seven men in the race lead.
The action wouldn’t last much longer, however, as worsening weather conditions, including heavy sleet and hail, saw race commissaires call a halt to the stage
The neutralisation, called at 46km to go, saw riders stop at their team cars to change clothes, add jackets, and take on hot drinks in the freezing conditions.
TV pictures showed snow falling at the finish, a crash-damaged Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale car, and – separately – a race motorbike crashed off-road down the grass verge.
After a short break, the riders got going again, rolling over the plateau and on a descent towards the day’s intermediate sprint. At 29km to go, though, the race was stopped again to let the peloton regroup ahead of a proper restart, with the break set to be let up the road with their previous time advantage.
Racing Resumes
Racing got underway again shortly afterwards, with conditions at the finish looking much drier, with the seven-man break lying 1:35 up on Smith, Foss, and Tarling, while the peloton lay 2:20 down.
Leknessund shot off the front alone at 26km to go to lead over the intermediate sprint, while the remainder of the break – minus Albanese – chased behind as Movistar, Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) took it up at the head of the peloton.
At 16km to go, Leknessund was rejoined by his breakmates while Swift dropped back to assist Foss and Tarling, who lay 30 seconds off the leaders.
On the day’s penultimate climb, the third-category Côte de la Chabanne, Gachinard picked up another three mountain points to take his total to 17, five clear of Delettre.
The chasing Ineos trio joined the break to make it an eight-man group shortly afterwards, though at that point, 10km from the finish, the peloton lay just 35 seconds back.
The early inclines of the closing climb saw Tarling pilot Foss off the front, launching the Norwegian with 6km to go. The remains of the break were brought back over the next 2km, though Foss persisted, holding off Pedersen, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, and Visma-Lease A Bike with a 25-second margin.
Lipowitz made the first move from the GC men at 4km to go, with Martinez trying shortly afterward, though Visma-Lease A Bike pair Matteo Jorgenson and Jonas Vingegaard shut down both attacks.
The group had Foss in sight at the 2.5km mark, and it was over for the solo leader a further 500 metres up the mountain as Martinez and Vingegaard came across. Vingegaard shook the pair off as he crossed the 2km mark, pushing on alone as a chase group of six formed.
Almeida led the pacemaking with Jorgenson marking, but as the Portuguese rider got closer and closer to the solo leader, the American could do nothing to prevent his rival from accelerating across to – and beyond – his teammate to score his first win of the 2025 season.
Results
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