Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step Floors) defended his yellow jersey on yesterday’s challenging fifth stage of Paris-Nice between Aubagne and Fayence where the riders faced six classified climbs – including three first-category ones.
As the bunch began to make up ground on an early breakaway, Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) tried to light the fuse and attack from afar, with 50 kilometres to go, but Dan Martin and Sergio Henao (Team Sky) responded immediately and the Spaniard was soon brought back.
It was only on the penultimate climb, Col de Bourigaille, after the escapees were absorbed by the reduced bunch, that a rider managed to get clear. Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) attacked 700 meters from the top and got a gap on the yellow jersey group, where Julian stayed tucked in, protected by Dan Martin.
The British rider had 50 seconds in hand at the bottom of the brutal climb to Fayence, a short but steep “wall” averaging 9.8% over 1300 meters, and that advantage was enough for him to nab the win. Behind, Henao and Richie Porte (BMC Racing) accelerated, putting pressure on Julian on the savage gradients kicking up to 22% in some sections.
The two opened up a gap, but the Quick-Step Floors rider managed to limit the losses thanks to a fantastic effort and selfless performance of Dan Martin, who came from behind and paced his teammate to the finish line, where he extended his advantage over the next rider in GC to 36 seconds. Besides putting in a big amount of work for Julian during the stage and especially on the Mur de Fayence, Martin also kept his fifth place overall, 1:20 adrift.
“I had to stay fully focused on what proved to be a very tough stage, with a really hard last ascent. A big thanks to all my teammates, who did a great job from the start until the finish, I’m very proud of them. I will now get to enjoy another day in this beautiful yellow jersey and this motivates me for tomorrow, when another excruciating stage awaits”, said Alaphilippe, who is also the best young rider of the race.
Today’s penultimate stage is 177 kilometres from Nice to Col de la Couillole, with four categorised climbs along the way including the first category climb to the finish.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele
