Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) claimed the victory on an unexpectedly brutal stage 6 of Paris-Nice. After four and a half hours of racing on a cold, wet and windy day, the Dane beat Josh Tarling and Sam Watson (Ineos Grenadiers) in a reduced bunch sprint.
The bigger story of the day was a vicious echelon attack from Visma-Lease a Bike that succeeded in distancing five of the top 10 riders in the general classification. Matteo Jorgenson extended his lead, thanks in part to his team's efforts and a six-second time bonus at the intermediate sprint.
Following the abandon of teammate Jonas Vingegaard before the stage, Jorgenson now has a 40-second lead in the GC over Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), with Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) climbing into third at 59 seconds.
The riders who missed out included João Almeida and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and Clément Champoussin and Harold Tejanda (XDS Astana).
Almeida dropped to fifth at 2:40 while Martinez finished much further back.
"After such a tough day like today, it's of course, nice to win. You know, it would be a pity to be second or third. So it's super nice to get a victory along with the team and also Skjelmose moving up in the GC. For us, this was a perfect day," Pedersen said.
The Dane lost some of his sparkle in the sprint because of the ridiculously fast average speed (47.392kph) and the near-freezing temperatures and rain. Tarling nearly got the better of him, but Pedersen muscled to the win.
"I'm just happy that I won - if you win with one centimeter or half a meter, it doesn't matter."
How it unfolded
Paris-Nice was sent into disarray first with the abandon of second-placed Vingegaard after his crash on Thursday and then with news that the penultimate stage on Saturday would be shortened to just 109.3 kilometres, eliminating the category 1 La Colmiane from the approach to the final ascent to Auron.
At first, it seemed as if the 209.8km would be one for the sprinters, with only three category 3 ascents and a flat final 40km. The Visma-Lease a Bike team had other plans.
After a cold, drizzly start, the breakaway quickly formed following an attack from Thomas Gachignard (TotalEnergies). He was joined almost immediately by Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ) and, after a longer chase, by Jakub Otruba (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) making it three in the lead.
The trio enjoyed a tailwind and ripped through the two hours at a breakneck 47.2kph average, but the peloton was in full pursuit by the time they reached the Côte de Pouzilhac.
The breakaway's maximum three-minute gap fell to half of that when Gachignard claimed the maximum points over the summit, moving ahead of Almeida in the mountains classification.
His job done, the Frenchman sat up and went back to the bunch, leaving Cavagna and Otruba to go it alone for the final 100 kilometres. The peloton, preparing for a shift into a crosswind, eased up, allowing the two remaining leaders to gain another minute, but even with a favourable advantage, Otruba threw in the towel and left Cavagna alone out front with 87km to go and 2:50 in hand.
Cavagna summited the Côte des Baux-de-Provence with a three-minute lead, but soon Visma-Lease a Bike took advantage of an exposed stretch of road to blow the peloton apart in the crosswinds, leaving fourth-placed Almeida and fifth-placed Martinez in the dust.
A chasing group latched onto the Visma train, putting all of Ineos sans Ben Swift in with the full Visma-Lease a Bike squad (minus Vingegaard, of course), Skjelmose and Pedersen for Lidl-Trek, Lipowitz and Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), and Max Schachmann (Soudal-Quickstep) the only ones making the group.
They swept past Cavagna with 42km to go and continued pouring on the pressure to leave Almeida and co. behind, heading into the final 20km with 1:20 on them.
Jorgenson attacked for the time bonus sprint in Lançon-Provence with 19.4km to go, taking a six-second bonus over Skjelmose and Lipowitz to pad his lead in the general classification, and then the group proceeded to add to their advantage over the chasers.
Heading into the final kilometre with 1:43 on the Almeida group, Schachmann tried to get away with a late move but was marked by Pedersen, who then jumped in sight of the line, challenged closely by Tarling, but the Lidl-Trek rider held him off for the victory.
Results
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