Jerome Cousin takes controversial win on Paris-Nice stage five

Jerome Cousin won stage five of Paris-Nice after refusing to work with breakaway companion Nils Politt before sprinting for the line as the peloton closed in behind.

Jerome Cousin takes his first stage win since 2013
Photo credit: asia.eurosport.com
Cousin (Direct Energie) picked up the King of the Mountains jersey by claiming maximum points on all four categorised climbs on the stage, but it was his mind games with breakaway companion Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin) in the last 8km that resulted in a controversial stage win for the Frenchman.

 Politt attacked the initial breakaway on the final climb of the day only to be followed by Cousin who refused to work as the peloton loomed just tens of seconds behind.

 Politt worked himself into the ground to maintain somewhat of a gap into the final kilometre, but Cousin capitalised on the knackered German and sprinted for the win as the sprinters charged fewer than 10-seconds behind.

 Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal), Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana) and Alexsander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) came third, fourth and fifth respectively.

 Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) held onto his leader's yellow jersey but a crash in the closing stages caught out Mitchelton-Scott's Esteban Chaves who was replaced in the top 10 of the general classification by his teammate Simon Yates.

The Race

Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Cousin, Julien El Fares (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) and Politt made up the breakaway as stage five made its way from Salon-De-Provence to Sisteron in the Alpes-De-Haute-Provence via a handful categorised climbs.

Cousin picked up maximum King of the Mountains points on both the category two Col du Pointu and category one Col de Lagarde d-Apt as the break maintained a steady five minute cushion to the peloton.

Politt won the intermediate sprint at Revest-du-Bion and as the break began the category three climb of Col du Negron the gap to the peloton dropped under five minutes.

Cousin again took maximum points as the break went over the Col du Negron, taking the Direct Energie ahead of Pierre-Luc Perichon (Fortuneo-Samsic) and teammate Fabien Grellier in the KOM competition. The peloton took over a minute out of the breakaway over the climb but gap remained steady at around four minutes as the race entered the final 50km.

Inside 25km and the gap to the breakaway was down to three minutes, with Lotto Soudal and Quick-Step Floors leading the charge.

As the peloton closed the gap to within two minutes with 15km to go, Politt attacked. He was followed by Cousin and the pair had a 20-second gap to Edet and El Fares over the Cote de la Marquise.

With 10km to go Politt and Cousin had 56-seconds on the peloton led by Mitchelton-Scott and Astana, while Edet and El Fares were just moments from being caught. 

The outcome of the stage was coming down to the wire as Politt desperately clung to the 40-second gap inside 8km, while Cousin sat on his wheel, unwilling to work to keep the peloton at bay.

 Politt's hard worked advantage was diminishing by the second and as they went under the flamme rouge with Cousin still refusing to help, they only had 10-seconds.

Cousin's mind games paid off, as the Frenchman sprinted past the exhausted Politt in the final 200 metres to claim victory with the sprinters flying up behind.

Stage Five Result

1. Jerome Cousin (Direct Energie) in 3-57-25
2. Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin) at 2"
3. Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) at 4"
4. Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana) at 4"
5. Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) at 4"
6. Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) at 4"
7. Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) at 4"
8. Mike Teunissen (Team Sunweb) at 4"
9. Matti Breschel (EF Education First-Drapac) at 4"
10. Koen De Kort (Trek-Segafredo) at 4"

General Classification

1. Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) in 17-45-26
2. Wout Poels (Team Sky) at 15"
3. Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) at 26"
4. Marc Soler (Movistar) at 26"
5. Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain Merida) at 34"
6. Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) at 35"
7. Ion Izagirre (Bahrain Merida) at 42"
8. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) at 42"
9. Sergio Henao (Team Sky) at 48"
10. Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) at 48"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elia Viviani's lack of strength on the small climbs could prevent him winning the maglia ciclamino

Image
Yesterday was earmarked as a boring, straight forward stage for a bunch sprint. It turned out to be anything but. As Sam Bennett left the rest of the field spluttering in his rooster tail on the soaking wet circuit at Imola, Elia Viviani was 145th and nine minutes behind. All thanks to bad weather and a small climb. Sam Bennett claims his second victory of the 2018 Giro d'Italia with jersey holder Elia Viviani minutes behind Photo credit: cyclingnews.com Flash back to 25th March this year, as Viviani sat hunched on the side of the road, sobbing, as a Quick-Step sougneur draped a jacket over his shoulders after narrowly losing to world champion Peter Sagan at Gent-Wevelgem. It wasn't so much of a huge surprise given the calibre of sprinters in the field, but with Quick-Step's dominance to that point in Belgian one-day races, you could empathise with the Italian for letting down a team that is set up primarily for success in the classics. As Team Sky is for Grand Tours.
Read more

Julian Alaphilippe wins Itzulia Basque Country stage two

Image
Julian Alaphilippe out sprinted a select group of climbers in Bermeo to take his second successive stage win and retain the overall lead of Itzulia Basque Country. Julian Alaphilippe gets the better of Primoz Roglic for the second sprint finish in a row at Itzulia Basque Country 2018 Photo credit: inthebunch.co.za Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors),  Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo), Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) and Mikel Landa (Movistar) broke clear on the San Pelaio climb with 7km remaining, but following the descent the three climbers never stood a chance against the stronger Frenchman in the sprint. The Race The break didn't go until the first categorised climb of the day with 60km gone in the race. The combination of strong cross winds and the gradients of the category three Natxitua split the peloton, resulting in an unusual breakaway containing a fair number of general classification hopefuls - Carlos Verona (Mitchelton-Scott), Michael Woods (EF Education First-Drapac
Read more

Sergio Henao wins Paris-Nice by two seconds after thrilling final stage

Image
Team Sky's Sergio Henao won Paris-Nice 2017 by just two seconds following an astonishing stage eight that Trek Segafredo's Alberto Contador was virtual leader of until the final kilometre. Credit: cyclingnews.com Quick-Step Floors' David de la Cruz won the stage ahead of two-time Paris-Nice winner Contador, who after attacking with 50kms to go was virtual race leader until the closing kilometres when Henao managed to claw back vital seconds to win Team Sky's fifth Paris-Nice title in six years by four different riders. "With what was happening, I thought about what happened last year with Thomas," reflected Henao, "It was basically the same situation so I couldn’t help but think about it." "Last year I was there to help Geraint [Thomas], so that meant I knew how to deal with that sort of stress. "I panicked a little bit when the gap was over a minute and I wasn’t receiving any help from the other teams. "But it was simpl
Read more