Paris-Nice

Philippe Gilbert, who is making his eleventh appearance at Paris-Nice, was for the second time this week the highest-finisher of Deceuninck – Quick-Step at the World Tour event, on the longest stage of this year, which journeyed from Vichy to Pélussin and took on a rolling terrain which helped 13 riders forge a six-minute gap that saw the move succeed and Magnus Cort (Astana) score the victory from a four-man group after attacking inside the final kilometer.

The reduced peloton, which contained Philippe Gilbert and Bob Jungels, arrived some 50 seconds later, and our Belgian rider was the one to get involved in the uphill sprint, nabbing a career tenth top 10 finish at the “Race to the Sun”. With Wednesday’s stage forcing a selection in the bunch and leading to the sprinters getting dropped early, Gilbert climbed to third in the rankings, just ten seconds behind the yellow jersey.

Stage 5 will take place in Barbentane and schedules a 25.5km-long individual time trial, whose parcourse which suits the rouleurs promises to deliver an important shake-up in the general classification of Paris-Nice, ahead of a mountainous and challenging weekend.

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