Racing restarted with 28km to go on Paris-Nice stage 4 after grim weather conditions forced neutralisation

The first summit finish stage of Paris-Nice was neutralised because of poor weather, with snow forcing the race to be suspended in the middle of stage 4, before proceedings were restarted with 28km to go.

Race officials began waving at the break and bunch to slow down with around 46 kilometres to go on the stage, which started in Vichy and was due to end at the summit of Les Loges de Gardes, a category 1 climb more than 1,000 metres above sea level, last visited by the Paris-Nice peloton two years ago

Warnings of poor weather had already been in place since the morning, and sleet and heavy rain began turning to snow as the stage continued.

This is far from being the first time that Paris-Nice has suffered from cancellations due to poor weather conditions, with several other editions being partly suspended in the past.

The riders in the break at the time were Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), Thibault Guernalec (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis), Dion Smith (Intermarché-Wanty), Thomas Gachignard (TotalEnergies) and Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck). They had a gap of 2:20 at the time of the stoppage.

After around 15 minutes of being fully stopped, the peloton started riding again behind the lead car, but still under neutralised conditions, as the snow continued to fall.

The breakaway was stopped again 29km from the finish, with assistant Paris-Nice race director Yannick Talabardon informing the break what would be happening and Tour de France Race Director Thierry Gouvenou trying to calm things in the peloton.

While the worst of the weather disappeared and the sun poked back out briefly to offer some respite, riders were still seen shivering and holding onto motorbikes to try and find warmth.

Eventually, the break was allowed to restart with 28.8km remaining on stage 4, with the three riders who were on the counter-attack, Josh Tarling, Tobias Foss (ineos Grenadiers), and Dion Smith (Intermarché-Wanty) allowed to start 1:35 later.

The peloton then got going with a 2:20 gap on the main breakaway after the rain and snow had stopped, with the main climb to La Loge des Gardes still to tackle and the victory still up for grabs.