The fifth stage of Paris – Nice is the longest stage of the race. There are 7 climbs on the route but all of them are in the first part of the stage and we will see if any of the favorites will try something today. If not there should be a sprint between the riders that can also climb the small hills such as Van Stayen, Haussler or Duque
On the first climb of the day, 3 riders were in the lead: Gallego, Deignan and Kern. The first one was also first at the top of the climb
Later they were joined in front of the race by 3 other riders: Torres, Bret and Nooytens. The first two joined the group on the downhill, while Nooyntens became one of the leading riders right before the first intermediate sprint of the day
And the Belgian from Lipton also won it, in front of Kern and Torres
Only 25 seconds behind them there was a group of 5 riders, which also attacked from the pack. Kvasina, Flens, Lund, Berthou and Vital were there
On the second climb of the day, the chasers caught the leading group and brought the number of riders in the front of the race up to 11. Vital was the only one that attacked at the top of the climb and took 10 KoM points in front of Kvasina and Kern
He also attacked and passed first at the top of the next climb, this time in front of Kern and Gallego. And with the points won here he is now the virtual polka dot jersey wearer, with Txurruka not being too active in the last stages
Vital really seems to be the only interested in the polka dot jersey and he was first at the top of the fourth climb as well, this time being followed by Deignan and Kvasina
On the fifth climb he attacked once again and took some more points, with Kvasina in the second position and Deignan third
The first rider at the top of the sixth climb was, as probably already expected, Vital, followed by Kern and Deignan
Vital was a really monster today when it came to the climbs as he was first on the last climb as well, followed by Kvasina and Gallego. With the 52 points won today and with 5 from the previous stages he is definitely the main favorite to win the polka dot jersey at the end of the race
Kvasina won the second and last intermediate sprint of the day but only 7 riders were left in the leading group at that point. The other six were: Gallego, Deignan, Kern, Berthou, Vital and Lund
No other team helped Carmeuse today and the pack was almost 8 minutes behind the escapes at the last intermediate sprint, which definitely puts Popovych’s yellow jersey in danger
Right after the 20 kilometers banner, when it was clear that it will be between the 7 escapes for the stage win, Berthou attacked from the leading group and the only one able to counter him was Deignan
But the Irish riders wasn’t as strong as the French one, who 10 kilometers later found himself in a very strong solo lead
Deignan was in the second position but he was already 1 minute and 10 seconds behind the Pearl rider
The other escapes, led by Kvasina, were already more than 2 minutes behind Berthou, which pretty much ruins their chances for the stage win
The pack was coming really strong, now that Carmeuse were gone from the leading positions, but they were still 7 minutes behind Berthou
Berthou reached the final 5 kilometers with even a bigger gap and it was now almost certain that he will take the stage win and the yellow jersey if nothing unexpected happens
Deignan was 1 minute and 20 seconds behind him while the other chasers were at 2 minutes
And Eric Berthou wins the 5th stage of Paris – Nice and he will most likely become the new yellow jersey wearer as well
If in the previous stages we had some punctures from the important riders, this time some of them even went down. Yesterday’s winner, Caruso, crashed and brought the white jersey wearer, Gesink, down with him as well
In front, Deignan finished second 1 minute and 45 seconds behind Berthou, who extend his lead over the chasers in the last kilometers
Kern won the sprint for the third place in front of Vital and Kvasina, 2 minutes and 9 seconds behind Berthou
Even though on the picture it looks like Haussler won the sprint in the pack, it was actually Duque who finished 8th, 4 minutes and 47 seconds behind the winner, and it was enough for him to take the green jersey from Renshaw, in a stage which will most likely change all the distinctive jersey wearers
Four Jack Wolfskin riders waited for Gesink but he lost 2 minutes and 6 second to the pack which pretty much ruins all his hopes for the GC
Still he was quite lucky as the other important rider who crashed, the Lafarge leader, Gianpaolo Caruso, wasn’t able to continue the race and had to abandon
