Greipel wins sprint as Alaphilippe keeps lead
Lotto Soudal's Andre Greipel has taken the victory in the final sprint of the fifth stage of Paris-Nice. The German champion was the strongest in the final meters and beat FDJ's Arnaud Demare and Lotto NL-Jumbo's Dylan Groenewegen
The fifth stage of Paris-Nice took place over 200 kilometers between Quincie-en-Beaujolais and Bourg-de-Peage in a route that had one third and one second category climb.
Six riders formed the breakaway gaining more than five minutes over the main bunch. Axel Domont (AG2R-La Mondiale), Natnael Berhane (Dimension Data), Pierre-Luc Perichon (Fortuneo Vital Concept), Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie), Federico Zurlo (UAE-Team Emirates) and Remy di Gregorio (Delko-Marseille) remained at the head of the race for most of the day.
The peloton caught the breakaway within 10 kms to go and right away the sprint steams came to the front. Katusha-Alpecin, FDJ and Team Sky took turns to set a high pace.
Groenewegen was the first to launch his sprint but Greipel proved to be strongest, coming past at the final moment. This is the second stage victory in Paris-Nice for the German champion, the first one was in 2015.
Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) and John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) took the fourth and fifth positions of the stage, respectively.
Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) remains in the lead of the General Classification ahead of Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) and Gorka Izagirre (Movistar).
2017 Paris-Nice Stage 5 Top 10
1 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal 4:43:35
2 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ
3 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
4 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb
5 John Degenkolb (Ger) Trek-Segafredo
6 Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) Orica-Scott
7 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors
8 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Direct Energie
9 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
10 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe#
2017 Paris-Nice Overall after Stage 5
1 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors 17:20:02
2 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal 0:00:33
3 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:47
4 Sergio Henao (Col) Team Sky 0:01:05
5 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:20
6 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:24
7 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:28
8 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ 0:01:29
9 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:31
10 Rudy Molard (Fra) FDJ
VIDEO: 2017 paris-Nice Stage 5 Highlights
2017 Paris-Nice LIVESTREAM: Stage 5
16:49 CET: Stage 5 Top 10 Overall after Stage 5
16:47 CET: Stage 5 Top 10 Results
16:42 CET: Final Sprint VIDEO
#ParisNice LIVE: VIDEO: Greipel wins stage 5 sprint! Watch Here => https://t.co/LL01jIrDrs #livestream pic.twitter.com/JMrlxrnn2e
— GranFondoGuide (@GranFondoGuide) March 9, 2017
16:41 CET: Greipel wins the final sprint on Stage 5
15:45 CET: Please refreash this page in your browser, LIVE VIDEO is about to start.
15:09 CET: 75 km to go. 3'35" for Berhane, Calmejane, Di Grégorio, Domont, Périchon and Zurlo
14:53 CET: Break away including; Domont, Berhane, Perichon, Calmejane, Zurlo and di Gregori lead the stage by more than five minutes
14:39 CET: Welcome to live coverage of Stage 5 of Paris-Nice
The 5th stage of Paris-Nice the riders travel from Quincié-en-Beaujolais to Bourg de Péage. At 199.5 kilometres, it is the longest stage in the 2017 edition of Paris-Nice.
Bourg-de-Péage and pro-cycling, that has become a popular combination in recent years. Two years ago stage 16 in the Tour de France left from the town in the Rhône-valley. The race boiled down to a Ruben Plaza showdown in arrival town Gap after a massive solo effort.
In 2017, the 5th stage of Paris-Nice ends in Bourg-de-Péage. Chances are the race will boil down to a bunch sprint, albeit the route takes in quite a few hills. Yet most of them are featured in the first half of the race.
The hilly section basically runs until the Côte de Givors. KOM-point on this 4.3 kilometres climb at 4.2% are up for grabs at kilometre 98, but the climb rolls on for a few more kilometres. Following the drop the flat second half of the race stretches out before the riders. Still, there is one punchy hill left. The Côte de Saint-Uze is 2.7 kilometres at 6.5% and at the top there are 47 kilometres left to race.
The first three riders on the line in Bourg-de-Péage take time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds, while intermediate sprints (after 70 and 133.5 kilometres) come with 3, 2 and 1 second each.
