This Paris-Nice has been an enjoyable one for home fans and Jonathan Hivert (Direct Energie) made it two wins from three stages so far, sprinting away from Astana’s Luis Leon Sanchez and Remy di Gregorio (Delko Marseille Provence) after the trip had broken away on the descent of the Côte de Charbonnières, which was lit up by the attack of Quick-Step’s Julian Alaphilippe.
This was very much a stage which delivered upon everything that had been promised by the profile, and after the passing of the finish first time around, with 30 kilometres left, we began to see real action. It was not a good time to be in anything but A1 condition, so Alexander Kristoff’s sickness left him in no fit state to compete as the road began to rise even before the climb was really going upwards. John Degenkolb would have a puncture at the same time as Kristoff’s dropping, whilst many teams upfront were pushing to try and get sprinters dropped.
Astana have a lot of strength in depth for this race and it was no surprise to see Omar Fraile on the front, upping the pace to help the puncheurs in the case of a reduced sprint which now looked increasingly likely given that Nacer Bouhanni was feeling the pinch. There was action all over the shop but Team Sky, beset by problems off the road, had to deal with an urgent situation on the road as Wout Poels suffered a puncture, and shortly after, Alaphilippe attacked, quickly taking Lotto-Soudal’s Tim Wellens with him.
They were quickly off whilst the main field was splitting and Jakob Fuglsang, who lost a lot of time with a late crash on stage one, made the jump across, looking to reclaim some of that time but also making an important tactical move that would benefit Astana greatly later in the race. They made a trio, with Alaphilippe crossing the KOM first with Wellens in his wheel whilst Fuglsang was now with them.
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Behind, Arnaud Demare had finally lost contact and was losing a minute although his group, with Team Sky now at the trial, was becoming very large indeed and beginning to gain some firepower as the gradient eased. In the end, there would be a big group of about 30 or so riders which would catch the leaders at the time and from that group Lillian Calmejane and Ion Izagirre would head on the attack.
They managed to get a handy gap of nearly 10 seconds over the field but then the fateful move was made, with Hivert counter attacking for Direct Energie and being doing by di Gregorio, who went with Sanchez. The latter’s presence was vital for their chances, as on a long and tricky route Astana had no incentive to chase whilst the gap for the leading trip would extend to 56 seconds, and despite the best attempts of Mitchelton-Scott and others, they would fight out the stage win.
The winner on the day was Hivert, but the overall has been changed significantly given the amount of time that Luis Leon Sanchez, an in-form rider more than capable of posting a strong time trial effort with a capable Astana team tomorrow, was able to take. He holds a 33 second advantage and has a big shot at the overall title, although the best of the racing is yet to come.
