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.
Article continues below
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.
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.
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
