Under control?

March 15 ^th 2025 - 04:24

The best form of defence is attack, as they say in headquarters, in football locker rooms and in cycling team buses. And it's exactly how Visma-Lease a Bike went into stage 6 of Paris-Nice, willing to pull no punches after receiving the news that Jonas Vingegaard had withdrawn. They lots their Danish leader and reacted by striking hard to break up the peloton and scatter many of Matteo Jorgenson's rivals throughout the Provençal countryside and in the general classification. The yellow and white jersey could have been weakened by the Berre-l'Etang stage, but on the contrary he came out of it stronger. The defending winner of the Race to the Sun now has only three competitors within 1'30‘ to watch closely on the climb to Auron and, if necessary, to counter: Florian Lipowitz (2nd, +40''), Mattias Skjelmose (3rd, +59'') and Thymen Arensman (4th, +1'29'').

The situation may therefore appear comfortable for the American, who also has the advantage of playing at home on a final ascent where he knows all the bends, the breaks in the slope and certainly the pot holes. However, the strategy he employed yesterday could also be used, on a different level, by rivals with wounded pride who would like to turn the situation around in the last two days. Admittedly, UAE Emirates XRG have fallen back badly, but the duo of Joao Almeida and Brandon McNulty will certainly not be content to sit back and watch Jorgenson's parade. Ineos Grenadiers, who have shown creativity in recent days, now have three riders in the top seven. And Jorgenson is well aware the leader can be toppled at the very last moment. That's how he won Paris-Nice last year.