Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) may have lined up at Paris-Nice hoping to take another step along the way in his journey to developing as a stage-race contender, but stepping into the race lead on stage 4 was clearly above and beyond even his most ambitious hopes.
After riding away from key overall rivals – which included Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) – and holding on for second place at the top of Mont Brouilly, the Australian champion will be lining up in yellow on Thursday.
