Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) romped to a rain and wind-battered victory on stage four of Paris-Nice, attacking from a small breakaway with a kilometre of the finishing climb to go.
He crossed the line 41 seconds ahead of second-placed Dani Martínez (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe). The performance put him in the leader's yellow jersey – as opposed to the bib-tights-on-the-outside look he was sporting as he crossed the line. It was a sartorial casualty of the ultra-intense racing, he later explained, insisting he was planning to take them off but could not find an opportunity.
Vingegaard took over the lead from Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), who was one of a number of riders to crash with 46km to go, and was forced to abandon.
On a weather-beaten stage that looked as if it was pulled from the depths of winter, Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe had strength in numbers on the final climb up to the stage finish in Uchon, with brothers Mick and Tim van Dijke dragging team-mate Martínez the whole way up the 8km ascent, and Vingegaard sitting in fourth wheel.
But Martínez had no answer to the Dane's attack, and he went on to take an accomplished victory. Vingegaard also earned himself six bonus seconds after winning the intermediate sprint at Autun, just before the middle of the day's three climbs – which were all loaded into the final third of the 195km stage.
A smiling and well wrapped-up Vingegaard said after the stage: "We did expect a crazy day but definitely not [as crazy] as it ended up. We had a plan to go on the second-last climb, but everything was just full-gas racing.
"I've been feeling good, but all day was just extremely hard," he added. "The start was so hectic... I'm just happy that I'm here and I won the stage. It's incredible. It's really nice to start the season this way."
The weather, he said, played a big part, from crosswinds to the cold. "I think a lot of guys were freezing today," he said.
Afterwards Martínez said the stage had been a hard one from the first kilometre, conceding that by the time Vingegaard attacked, he had no energy left.
The day did not go so well for numerous other GC hopefuls. Brandon McNulty of UAE Team Emirates-XRG was forced to abandon with a knee injury after the same big crash that saw Ayuso crash out.
Elsewhere, Ineos Grenadiers hopefuls Kévin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley – who had been sitting second and third after the team won yesterday's time trial – missed out in the split that occurred very early in the stage. Onley suffered after crashing himself, while Vauquelin ended up attempting to chase down the front group all day, eventually finishing sixth, 3:38 down.
At the day's end, Onley had slipped to 14th on GC at 8:38, Vauquelin fourth at 3:39.
ResultsParis-Nice stage four: Bourges > Uchon, 195km
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 4:16:12
2. Dani Martínez (Col) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +41s
3. Tim van Dijke (Ned) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +45s
4. Mick van Dijke (Ned) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +1:42
5. Georg Steinhauser (Ger) EF Education-EasyPost, +2:54
6. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Ineos Grenadiers, +3:38
7. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious, +4:02
8. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United, +4:20
9. Jensen Plowright (Aus) Alpecin-Premier Tech, +4:55
10. Marc Soler (Spa) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +5:07
General Classification after stage four
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 12:53:15
2. Dani Martínez (Col) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +52s
3. Georg Steinhauser (Ger) EF Education-EasyPost, +3:20
4. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Ineos Grenadiers, +3:39
5. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United, +5:02
6. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious, +5:07
7. Tim van Dijke (Ned) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +5:33
8. Marc Soler (Spa) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +5:45
9. Jensen Plowright (Aus) Alpecin-Premier Tech, +6:27
10. Ion Izagirre (Spa) Cofidis, +6:32
