Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) sprinted to victory in the 5th stage of Paris-Nice as Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) kept his hold on the yellow jersey.
With a distance of 199.5 kilometres the fifth stage, from Quincié-en-Beaujolais to Bourg-de-Péage, was the longest one of this edition. It was the last chance for the sprinters this week and they didn’t want to let that slip.
Not long after the start, six riders got away from the bunch. They had a maximal lead of more than five minutes. Twenty kilometres from the end, the peloton split in two because of a crash. André Greipel and Tony Gallopin were riding in the second and biggest part, together with GC leader Julian Alaphilippe. Soon, the peloton got back together. With 12.5 kilometres to go, the last four escapees were reeled in. In the last kilometres the roundabouts on the course created chaos during the sprint preparation. André Greipel got through these passages without any problems and was riding in an excellent position to start the sprint. His victory was very impressive, beating Démare and Groenewegen with more than a bike length.
“It was the big goal to win a stage here at Paris-Nice against some of the best sprinters in the world”, said Greipel. “Arnaud Démare is riding very impressive at the moment. I’m glad I could beat him. Of course I was very disappointed on Tuesday when I only got seventh. I made a mistake and I was really angry at myself. We wanted to do better today and so we did. The last seven kilometres we had to fight against a strong headwind, so it was not easy to stay in front. Luckily, with the support from the team, I managed to get in a really good position for the sprint. The finish was slightly uphill and suited me well. I am very happy with this victory. The next days I’ll do my best to support Tony Gallopin where I can. Saturday will be a fight man against man and he is really good, I think he can win this Paris-Nice.”
Le dernier kilomètre à revoir ! / Take an other look at the last kilometer! #ParisNice pic.twitter.com/CpX5TeFUVy
— Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) 9 martie 2017
Paris-Nice 2017 – stage 5 results (Quincié-en-Beaujolais – Bourg-de-Péage):
| 1 | André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) | 4:43:35 |
| 2 | Arnaud Demare (FDJ) | ,, |
| 3 | Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 4 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 5 | John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 6 | Magnus Cort Nielsen (Orica-Scott) | ,, |
| 7 | Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 8 | Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) | ,, |
| 9 | Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Merida) | ,, |
| 10 | Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
General classification after stage 5:
| 1 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | 17:20:02 |
| 2 | Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) | +33” |
| 3 | Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) | +47” |
| 4 | Sergio Henao (Team Sky) | +01’05” |
| 5 | Daniel Martin (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’20” |
| 6 | Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’24” |
| 7 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +01’28” |
| 8 | Arnaud Demare (FDJ) | +01’29” |
| 9 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | +01’31” |
| 10 | Rudy Molard (FDJ) | +01’32” |
