Paris-Nice: Jonas Vingegaard launches 20km solo attack for impressive stage 5 victory, extends already massive GC lead

Coming hard on the heels of such a memorably tough day in the hills of central France, you might have thought the peloton would take it easy on the longest stage of this year’s edition of Paris-Nice and the only one over 200 kilometres. But instead, a relentless series of unsuccessful attacks kept the peloton on the boil and the kilometres clicking by fast without even one breakaway managing to stick.

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Finally, a quarter of the way through the stage and after a first hour run off at a searing 51.6 kmh, skirmishing on the first ascent of five of the day, the Cat.3 Côte de Lentilly culminated in a five-man move.

The only Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider to miss the echelon on Wednesday, so presumably with a point to prove, Aleksandr Vlasov, was joined by Ineos Grenadiers time trialling powerhouse Josh Tarling, his Groupama-FDJ United counterpart Rémi Cavagna, Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar) and Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM).

The five were all far enough down overall – Cavagna was 15 minutes back – to not cause a stir when they made a move, and unsurprisingly, therefore, they rapidly forged open a gap of over a minute on the hilly roads south running loosely parallel to the River Rhone.

The break’s already good chances of staying away heightened considerably when they were joined by Spanish National Champion Iván Romeo (Movistar), Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar) and Victor Campenaerts (Vismal-Lease a Bike).

It was unclear, though, whether Campenaerts could also be present to play a role helping Vingegaard in a late attack should the race leader try to bridge across on the final climbs, but Movistar’s managing to get three stage hunters in the move of eight arguably more than made up for it.

The octet sped towards the first ascent, the Côte de Secheras, with an advantage of 1:25, Visma-Lease a Bike’s nominal control on the front of the equally fast-moving bunch being matched by Ineos Grenadiers and EF Education-EasyPost.

The brutal raising of the pace on the climb caused the break to accelerate and fall apart, even though Cepeda turned an admirably strong ride to crown the Secheras with 20 seconds in hand on Prodhomme and Vlasov.

On the flat that followed, the Ecuadorian still had a 40-second advantage on the peloton, too, despite Bruno Armirail managing to singlehandedly whittle it down to just 20 riders for Visma.

But on the short but brutally steep Cat.1 Côte de Saint-Jean-de-Muzols, that all changed as Prodhomme and Vlasov were swept up by Ineos, also present in numbers on the bunch, and then Campenaerts – impressively given he’d been in the break – closed in relentlessly on Cepeda.

Campenaerts leads out Vingegaard (Image credit: Getty Images)

Ineos and Visma took turns on the front of a bunch now converted into a lead group of roughly a dozen riders, then, with 21 kilometres to go, with Dani Martínez beginning to struggle on the steepest slopes of the climb, Vingegaard launched a powerful attack. Nobody could follow him as the gradient rose to 12%, leaving Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), third overall, also struggling..

Over the summit, Vingegaard had an advantage of nearly 20 seconds on lone chaser Lenny Martínez (Bahrain Victorious), also making an important upwards-GC statement after David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ United) abandoned.

Working for Kévin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley, Ineos did their best to try and react behind, and on the flatter section that followed, they managed to limit the gap to around 30 seconds.

But there was very little chance of their stopping Vingegaard, visibly unleashed after taking such a difficult stage on Wednesday.

“We had to adapt the plan a few times,” Vingegaard said later, “initially it was to take off when I did, but then the break got a big gap, and we thought I’d have to try to bridge across the first climb.”

“So then we went back to the original plan, the whole team was there for me, they sacrificed themselves for me, and it was amazing. I’m happy I can pay it back.”

“I got a gap even before I had to attack because of Victor [Campenaerts], he did an incredible leadout today, so of course I wasn’t over my limit to try and drop the other guys, and you stay within your limit.”

Thanks to all those circumstances, the tide was flowing relentlessly in Vingegaard’s favour after he went away, and the divided and demoralised opposition only contributed to that tendency over the final ascents of the day by attacking each other rather than a concerted chase.

The battle for second on stage 5 (Image credit: Getty Images)

With the battle for the right to stand on the podium in full swing, when Paret-Peintre went clear around five kilometres from the line, it brought zero response from the nine other chasers. Eventually, they crossed the line a full 2:20 behind Vingegaard: in a race like Paris-Nice, a time-chasm.

By the time they reached the finish line at Colombier-le-Vieux, Vingegaard had done everything expected of him: a cheerful exchange with the team car, increasing the gap step by step all the way to the line, and even having time to wave at his family before he reached the line. “You seem in total control”, the TV commentators told him during the TV interview, and there was little doubt about that.

Racing continues on Friday with another hill stage from Barbentane to Apt, where the Cat.2 ascent of the Côte de Saignon (4.1km at 5%), peaking out just five kilometres from the finish, is likely to play a pivotal role. Then it’s into Paris-Nice’s usual final mountainous showdown weekend, but barring a major surprise, given Vingegaard’s superiority, the race is all over bar the shouting.