Porte avenges early woes as Henao seizes lead

March 11 ^th 2017 - 17:56

Six in the lead
154 riders left Nice for the mountains of Mercantour without Stefan Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Dan McLay (Fortuneo) and Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale), who called it quits. With the 2nd category Cote de Gattieres early in the stage at kilometer 10, five men broke clear looking for KOM points. Among them were the two leaders of the mountain classification, Axel Domont (Ag2R) and Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie), along with Jan Polanc (UAE), Omar Fraile (Dimension Data), Lilian and Delio Fernandez (Delko-Marseille-Provence). Calmejane beat Domont at the top as the break was leading the bunch by 3:30.

Calmejane goes for KOM
Pierre-Luc Perichon (Fortuneo) chased behind the six and joined them after 24 km as their lead had gone up to 4:30. Calmejane broke clear two kilometers from the top of Col de Vence to collect 10 points at the top, followed by Domont. The breakaway then split but regrouped in the descent. The peloton was 3:45 at the top and the gap remained stable in the valley until Calmejane moved once again at kilometer 110. Behind the Frenchman, the group splintered. Fraile was the first to lose touch, followed by Perichon and Polanc, and then Domont and Fernandez.  The peloton tackled Col St Martin 3:15 behind Calmejane.

Calmejane resists
In the climb, as Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) tried to part company with the bunch, Team Sky chased down the former escapees. Calmejane reached the top 1:10 before the pack and collected ten more points to take the KOM jersey away from Domont. In the last kilometer Tony Gallopin(Lotto-Soudal), second overall, began to show signs of weakness. In the descent, Mauro Finetto (Delko-Marseille-Provence) tried to chase behind Calmejane but flatted. At the bottom of Col de la Couillole, the new polka-dot jersey holder led Cyril Gautier (Ag2R), Quentin Pacher (Delko-Marseille) and Diego Ulissi (UAE) by 20 seconds and the pack by 45 seconds.

On La Couillole
Pacher and Ulissi found themselves in front with 14 km to go with Sebastian Henao (Sky) setting the tempo at the front of the bunch for his cousin Sergio. Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo) raised the tempo in the bunch and the pace became too high for race leader Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step), who lost ground 10.5 km from the line as well as second-placed Tony Gallopin. As Ulissi was chased down, Richie Porte (BMC), Jarlinson Pantano (Trek), Alberto Contador (Trek), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha), Ion Izaguirre (Bahrain), Dan Martin (Quick Sttep), Pierre Latour (Ag2R), Victor De la Parte, Gorka  Izagirre and Marc Soler (Movistar), Sergio Henao and Mikel Nieve(Sky) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) found themselves in the front.

Porte goes
Jarlinson Pantano twice raised the tempo in the climb and only Henao, Contador, Porte, Martin, Jon Izagirre and Fuglsang could stay with him in the five last kilometers. Richie Porte twice tested his companions before bearing the deceasing blow with 3 km to go. The Australian steadily increased his lead to clinch his fifth stage victory in the race. Behind him Alberto Contador parted with Henao to go for second place while Dan Martin sprinted in the last stretch to overtake the Colombian and take third place. Overall, Henao leads Martin by 30 seconds, Contador by 31 and looks ideally placed to give Team Sky their fifth Paris-Nice victory in six years. Julian Alaphilippe salvaged 5th place, 1:22 behind.