Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) sprinted to victory on stage 6 of Paris-Nice, out-pacing his two breakaway companions.
In the trio, Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) seized the day despite missing the stage win – taking second, the six-second bonus and the overall race lead by more than a minute over pre-race favourite Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep).
With third on the stage, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) - the instigator of the attack - moved into second overall at 23 seconds. Overnight leader Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) slipped to third at 34 seconds after the breakaway trio gained 53 seconds by the finish.
Skjelmose was thrilled to notch up his first win of the year and his first at Paris-Nice.
"I'm really happy and surprised," he said following the race finish. "I was feeling quite good all day but you know, these kinds of days are a bit special and you need a lot of luck. But the team worked perfectly for me after Mads was brought back from the breakaway. When the team works like this it minimises all the luck you need."
The victory came thanks to his cagey tactics, mostly sitting on McNulty and Jorgenson who had much more to gain in the general classification, as he started the day 1:27 behind Plapp while his companions were both within a minute.
"It was a bit of a weird way to win because I played on me being down in GC and then having such a big gap on me," Skjelmose said. "It's not the nicest way to win. And those guys were stronger than me today, I think."
He added that he didn't expect to be in the winning attack and credited being further behind in the GC with being let go by Evenepoel.
"I thought Remco, Primož [Roglič] or one of the guys high up in GC would close it. But then I tried to pull it a little bit and they let me go or gave me a few metres and then I just went off - then Brandon joined me and we could close to Matteo."
Now with the yellow jersey slightly closer, Skjelmose has more hope of getting a result in the overall. When asked if he could win, he said. "Bigger miracles have happened in cycling - if I should win very nice, but I think the other guys were stronger than me today."
How it unfolded
Paris-Nice wasn't exactly racing to the sun on stage 6. With snow in the forecast for the weekend and frigid temperatures already arriving, riders donned winter gear for the hilly and chilly 198.5km stage from Sisteron to La Colle-sur-Loup. With five classified climbs and a flat finish, the main interest of the day was the mountains classification, led by Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies).
The peloton shrunk for the third straight day with Nils Eekhoff and Tobias Lund Andresen (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) and Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) leaving before the stage and Alexis Gougeart (Cofidis) and Rüdiger Selig (Astana) departing during the race.
The long, flat run-out to the first climb at kilometre 69.8 was fraught with attacks but it took almost the entire distance for a breakaway to find success, despite several attempts from Burgaudeau, his closest rival in the polka dot jersey race Christian Scaroni (Astana), and points classification leader Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).
Finally on the category 2 Col des Lèques, a group forged clear, launching off an attack by Scaroni. The Italian claimed the maximum points on the climb, followed by Burgaudeau.
On the descent, more riders scrambled across to make the breakaway. In there was previous GC leader Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ), Marco Haller (Bora-Hansgrohe), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Cedric Beullens (Lotto Dstny), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Christian Scaroni (Astana), Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché-Wanty) Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies), Michel Storer (Tudor) and Gijs Leemreize (DSM).
Heading into the Col de Luens the leaders enjoyed their biggest advantage at 2:10, but that gap began to shrink as the group made their way up the next category 2 climb, the Col de Luens.
As Burgaudeau out-paced Scaroni at the summit, the peloton was less than a minute behind, but kept the breakaway at a distance until Ineos Grenadiers sent their whole team to the front on the category 3 Cote de la Blachette.
The surge brought back most of the breakaway, but Burgaudeau was keen to get the points and attacked with Haller. The Bora-Hansgrohe rider couldn't hold the wheel but Burgaudeau stayed away to take the points, while Scaroni snatched a few more for taking second.
Pedersen split the peloton on the descent but the group came back together for the closing circuit. With the stair-step Côte de la Colle-sur-Loup (category 2) coming soon after, Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked and pulled away a small group.
Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike - 8th at 52 seconds) counter-attacked with 29.3km to go on the 1.8km ascent. Soon after, Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates - third overall at 27 seconds) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek - 19th at 1:27) bridged across.
On the furious chase behind, Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious - second overall at 13 seconds) crashed in a turn as light rain began to fall. As he was trying to chase back on he had a mechanical and had to stop again. What was less than a 30-second gap to the maillot jaune group turned into more than a minute.
Ahead, Jorgenson claimed the 10-second time bonus sprint with Skjelmose and McNulty taking 6 and 4, respectively.
In the chase on the descent, Plapp began to lose touch on the wet roads and the leaders' advantage stretched out to 40 seconds as McNulty and Jorgenson pushed the pace with Skjelmose hanging at the back.
The two Americans stretched the gap to 50 seconds as the road levelled out and with 5km to go it was even further out, putting McNulty firmly in the virtual GC lead. The only question remaining is which of the three would win the sprint.
McNulty led into the final 500 metres and Skjelmose opened up the sprint. After doing all the work, the two Americans had to settle for the scraps, with McNulty taking the six-second bonus on the line.
Result
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