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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 choose lead group on the finish of the 163km stage, with Vingegaard having gone up the highway solo within the remaining 2km of the 6.7km closing climb.
Vingegaard was grimly hanging on within the remaining 500 metres, however Almeida punched previous within the steep closing inclines to return via and declare the 14th triumph of his profession.
The Dane and his teammate, race chief Matteo Jorgenson, had performed a one-two recreation on the ultimate climb, closing down assaults and controlling the race, earlier than Vingegaard adopted a Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) transfer at 2.5km to go earlier than leaping clear on his personal.
He held a small hole – by no means greater than round 10 seconds – on the highway, and it was a bonus that slimmed as he neared the end line, with Almeida main the cost and ultimately accelerating previous to attain the win.
“I’m tremendous completely happy. It was a tough day. So much occurred on this stage, and we had some snow on the course. But we by no means gave up. I feel we deserved it and I’m very completely happy for it,” Almeida mentioned after the stage.
“I used to be feeling fairly good. Of course, to be trustworthy, I’m not the most effective man with the chilly temperatures. I used to be struggling with that, however I by no means gave up. The climb wasn’t steep sufficient and it was arduous to make the group smaller. Jonas attacked and I wasn’t in the most effective place, however I gave my greatest and I’m tremendous completely happy once more.
“Yesterday was not our day. We had some setbacks,” Almeida mentioned of the stage 3 crew time trial. But yesterday was yesterday, and at the moment was one other alternative. We wanted to take the positives from yesterday, like I used to be feeling actually good and did a very good effort. We lose as a crew, and we win as a crew and I feel we deserve it at the moment.
“I feel we are able to [win Paris-Nice], but it surely’s not simply as much as me, you recognize? I feel my form is nice and I really feel good and I’m prepared to point out who João Almeida is. For certain, I’ll give my greatest.”
Behind Vingegaard, one other Dane, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), rounded out the stage podium, whereas Jorgenson completed in sixth place at six seconds down. As a consequence, and bearing in mind Vingegaard’s six bonus seconds, the American cedes the result in his teammate and now lies in second general at 5 seconds down.
Skjelmose is third general at 33 seconds, whereas 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 dash levels and a crew time trial, stage 4 of Paris-Nice would carry the primary GC problem of the race. The peloton would deal with a mountainous 163.4km route from Vichy to La Loge des Gardes. Six climbs and a couple of,700 metres of ascent stuffed the stage, together with the closing first-category climb (6.7km at 7.1%).
Attacks went from the very begin 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 below 20km for a transfer to get away with Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) among the many eight-rider group.
The Norwegian climber could be joined within 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, recent off their TTT-winning effort on stage 3, took management on the head of the peloton, letting the break go three minutes up the highway over the difficult early terrain.
On the highway, Gachinard set out his stall as a mountain classification challenger, beating Leknessund and Moniquet to the highest of the day’s first two climbs, the Côte de Lavoine and Côte de la Bruyère.
The Frenchman picked up six factors there and added one other three on the Côte de la Croix Bruyère earlier than main over the Côte du Canon, 51km from the road, to take his complete to 14 factors.
That put him two away from KOM chief, his TotalEnergies teammate Alexandre Delettre, whereas again within the peloton Bahrain Victorious’ GC hope Santiago Buitrago crashed out of the race on a descent.
On the best way up the Canon, Ineos Grenadiers despatched two males – Josh Tarling and Tobias Foss – on an surprising assault two minutes behind the break. Up entrance, Smith was the primary to drop from the group, leaving seven males within the race lead.
The motion wouldn’t final for much longer, nevertheless, as worsening climate situations, together with heavy sleet and hail, noticed race commissaires name a halt to the stage
The neutralisation, referred to as at 46km to go, noticed riders cease at their crew automobiles to vary garments, add jackets, and tackle sizzling drinks within the freezing situations.
TV photos confirmed snow falling on the end, a crash-damaged Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale automotive, and – individually – a race bike crashed off-road down the grass verge.
After a brief break, the riders acquired going once more, rolling over the plateau and on a descent in direction of the day’s intermediate dash. At 29km to go, although, the race was stopped once more to let the peloton regroup forward of a correct restart, with the break set to be let up the highway with their earlier time benefit.
Racing Resumes
Racing acquired underway once more shortly afterwards, with situations on the end trying a lot drier, with the seven-man break mendacity 1:35 up on Smith, Foss, and Tarling, whereas the peloton lay 2:20 down.
Leknessund shot off the entrance alone at 26km to go to steer over the intermediate dash, whereas the rest of the break – minus Albanese – chased behind as Movistar, Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) took it up on the head of the peloton.
At 16km to go, Leknessund was rejoined by his breakmates whereas Swift dropped again to help 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 one other three mountain factors to take his complete to 17, 5 away from Delettre.
The chasing Ineos trio joined the break to make it an eight-man group shortly afterwards, although at that time, 10km from the end, the peloton lay simply 35 seconds again.
The early inclines of the closing climb noticed Tarling pilot Foss off the entrance, launching the Norwegian with 6km to go. The stays of the break had been introduced again over the subsequent 2km, although Foss continued, holding off Pedersen, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, and Visma-Lease A Bike with a 25-second margin.
Lipowitz made the primary transfer from the GC males at 4km to go, with Martinez making an attempt shortly afterward, although Visma-Lease A Bike pair Matteo Jorgenson and Jonas Vingegaard shut down each assaults.
The group had Foss in sight on the 2.5km mark, and it was over for the solo chief an additional 500 metres up the mountain as Martinez and Vingegaard got here throughout. Vingegaard shook the pair off as he crossed the 2km mark, pushing on alone as a chase group of six fashioned.
Almeida led the pacemaking with Jorgenson marking, however because the Portuguese rider acquired nearer and nearer to the solo chief, the American might do nothing to forestall his rival from accelerating throughout to – and past – his teammate to attain his first win of the 2025 season.
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