Paris-Nice headed to the hills for the first time today, with a tough and leg sapping stage that featured over 3500 metres of climbing throughout the afternoon and a hill-top finish. With the difficult nature of the course, a break of six riders was able to get clear within the opening few kilometres and quickly built up their advantage, with all Team DSM riders in the bunch.

Heading into the final 50 kilometres the advantage to the group ahead stood at three minutes and soon began to fall as the pace in the peloton increased. Jasha Sütterlin came to the front and set a good tempo for the team before Casper Pedersen attacked. Hoping to bring a group clear with him to put pressure on other teams, no one followed Pedersen so he soon sat up and returned to the bunch, saving energy.

Things in the peloton then calmed down on the following descent and flat valley roads as the race entered the last 20 kilometres. Onto the penultimate climb, Pedersen did a good job to position Jai Hindley and Tiesj Benoot towards the front of the bunch, in anticipation of attacks but nothing came to fruition. A duo attacked over the top but onto the climb to the line it was almost all back together, with Hindley riding strongly to cover any dangerous attacks. With around three kilometres to go Roglic caught the group by surprise and launched his stage winning attack.

The team and Hindley took the impetus to begin chasing, with Hindley holding the gap steady before Benoot launched his own attack coming under the flamme rouge. Digging deep all the way to the finish Benoot crossed the line for a strong fourth place finish, moving up to seventh on GC. While Hindley finished not too far behind in a chasing group, after his good work in the finale.

Tomorrow should see the sprinters get their chance once again, although a few hills in the finale might tempt some baroudeurs into a late attack.

“We did everything we could and are happy with how it went today. Jai and rest of the guys did a magnificent job,” expressed Tiesj after the stage. “It was a nice parcours that suited me well. I was a bit too far back when Roglic attacked and we were a bit surprised by it too. The climb was not ideal for Jai but he was very good and supported me well to the finish which was great. Today is a good confirmation of my condition and the work we’ve put in at team camp and in training recently, and we’ll take the race day-by-day now.”