Olav Kooij won for the second time in a week at Paris-Nice, powering past Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) in the final 50 metres.
Stage five of the race was a long day on the bike, a stage which was penned in as a possible one for a breakaway, but once it was caught with 10km to go, it was only going to end in a bunch sprint.
Visma-Lease a Bike's Kooij timed his sprint perfectly to cross the line in first. There was no change on general classification, with Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) staying in yellow.
The Dutchman has taken four wins already this season, at least one in every race he has competed in, and so is in good form, but his speed to round Pedersen and Ackermann was still impressive. The former was second for the second time this week, while the latter took his first podium since moving to Israel-Premier Tech.
A strong breakaway threatened to stay away. At its biggest, it contained three Lotto Dsnty riders (Victor Campernaerts, Pascal Eenkhoorn and Mathias Paaschens), two from TotalEnergies (Pierre Latour and Sandy Dujardin), along with Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Matthias Norsgaard (Movistar) and Alexis Gougeard (Cofidis). However, there was too much interest in a sprint finish for this to stay away, ultimately.
The yellow jersey holder, Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla), briefly looked like he was out of position inside the final 10km, especially as the road rose and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) accelerated, but there was no change overall.
It was a messy final sprint, with few full teams left after an attritional day, but Kooij waited until the final 150m to properly open up, and chose the left side of the road in order to not get boxed in. The rest looked simple.
"It was quite a tough day, with the headwind it was very difficult to control a strong breakaway, especially after two guys more raced across," the winner said post-stage. "We had to work for it all day. In the final, most teams didn't have many guys left to control it, I just had to find my way. Luckily, I was able to open up.
"We committed to it with the whole team, had a great plan, so really happy that I could take my second win. It has been a good week, and a huge success. We have some other goals with Matteo [Jorgenson] and Wilco [Kelderman] for the weekend, so we're not done yet."
Pedersen has moved into the green jersey, and will try and get more than second on possibly his last chance of the race on Friday's stage six, a lumpy 199km stage from Sisteron to La Colle-sur-Loup.
RESULTS: Paris-Nice stage four, Saint-Saveur-de-Montagut > Sisteron (193.5km)
1. Olav Kooij (Ned) Visma-Lease a bike in 4:23:44
2. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek
3. Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Israel-Premier Tech
4. Sam Bennett (Ire) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
5. Danny Van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe)
6. Tobais Lund Andresen (Den) dsm-firmenich PostNL
7. Matteo Trentin (Ita) Tudor Pro Cycling
8. Laurence Pithie (NZl) Groupama-FDJ
9. Madid Mikhels (Est) Intermarché-Wanty
10. Dušan Rajović (Ser) Bahrain-Victorious, all at same time
General classification after stage five
1. Luke Plapp (Aus) Jayco AlUla, in 17:38:48
2. Santiago Buitrago (Col) Bahrain-Victorious, +13s
3. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates, +27s
4. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, +29s
5. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +30s
6. Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, +40s
7. Chris Harper (Aus) Jayco AlUla, +46s
8. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +52s
9. Rigoberto Urán (Col) EF Education-EasyPost, +54s
10. Carlos Rodríguez (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers, +1:02
