Paris-Nice: Jonas Vingegaard climbs into race lead with massive effort on stage 4 marked by high-speed turmoil and grueling weather conditions

Paris-Nice was thrown into chaos and the overall turned upside down on Wednesday, as a late high-speed mass crash forced GC leader Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) and other top riders to abandon injured, whilst Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) captured the victory and the yellow jersey in the race's first summit finish overall.

On the last kilometre of the category 1 ascent to Uchon, Vingegaard blasted away from the tiny front group of three who had managed to avoid the major crash that left Ayuso out of the race, finishing nearly a minute ahead of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader Dani Martínez, his teammate Tim Van Dijke claimed third.

On a bitterly cold, rainy day through the hills of central France where for many riders the only objective came down to just being able to finish, the effects of an early echelon of 40 riders containing Ayuso, Vingegaard and Martínez already saw the race shattered into pieces long before the final climbs and the mass crash.

Latest Videos From

"I wouldn't say we expected such a crazy day, we did expect a crazy day but definitely not like it ended up," Vingegaard said afterwards.

"The start was so hectic, I'm just so happy I'm here and I've won the stage.

"We also had a plan, we wanted to go on the second last climb, but everything was full gas from the start, there was not even time to take clothes off.

"Maybe you can call me a trendsetter with the long pants [he was wearing] but there was just not time to take it off. I've been feeling good, but all day was just extremely hard and Eduardo [Affini] was there with me most of the day, he did a super-good job.

Ineos Grenadiers co-leader Kévin Vauquelin, previously third overall, was amongst those dropped early, while teammate Oscar Onley suffered after an earlier fall and then a mechanical and finished more than three minutes down.

However, it was the big pile-up at 55 kilometres on a sweeping descent that upended the race the most, seeing Ayuso fall heavily and abandon, whilst other top contenders badly affected included Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who abandoned, and Spanish National Iván Romeo (Movistar).

Initially with four riders in a front group of five, Red Bull were able to push on with Vingegaard, who finally soared away unanswered by Martinez one kilometre from the rain-soaked summit to claim the victory and the lead.

After his crash and abandon in 2025, Vingegaard confirmed it was good sporting revenge, saying "coming back and winning a stage - I guess it's my first in Paris Nice outside the team time trials - it's really nice to start the season this way."

"The conditions had a big influence, first there were the crosswinds, and already a few guys were caught behind, and later on a lot of guys were freezing today. I personally didn't freeze because I had a lot of clothes off, but with the rain, obviously it affected the race."

How it unfolded

In the opening segment of stage 4, a flat run east out of Bourges, there had been plenty of predictions about echelons, and they proved 100% correct. No sooner had the starting pistol sounded than Ayuso, Vingegaard and Onley all made it into an elite front group of 40. Amongst those top names missing the cut from the leaders were French climbing star Lenny Martínez (Bahrain Victorious), Onley's teammate Kévin Vauquelin and Visma-Lease a Bike's Bruno Armirail.

Ayuso, on the other hand, had two teammates to work for him, Jakob Söderqvist and Mathias Vacek, Vingegaard was supported by Eduardo Affini, and Onley had no less than three fellow Ineos Grenadiers racers, Michael Kwiatkowski, Josh Tarling and Sam Watson, for company.

Unsurprisingly, given the calibre of those ahead, as the pace rose to an average speeds of 54 kph for the first half hour, the lead move gained well over a minute.

Important as the names were in this group, there were plenty of those missing from the top segment of the Paris-Nice GC, including 2018 winner Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and French hopefuls Vauquelin, who was running third overall pre-stage, and top climber Martínez.

Despite a ferocious pursuit, not even the incessant rain nor yet a crash involving Dan Hoole (Decathlon CMA CGM), Onley and Tarling, seemed to have any effect on the gap. The crash forced the Dutch rider, running fourth overall, to abandon, .

By the time the frontrunners reached the Cat.3 Col de la Croix des Cerisiers, the first of the late hilly challenges, the 40-strong group's advantage had yawned back out again at 1:35 - not a massive advantage, but in a race like Paris-Nice which often is won or lost by a handful of seconds, a notable one all the same.

Behind, Vauquelin led the chase in person on the third category ascent, a move which, with nobody else contributing, felt perilously close to a last throw of the dice. Things worsened a little more for Ineos when Onley had a mechanical and was forced to push hard to regain contact, aided by Tarling - a chase that proved in vain.

The biggest plot twist of all, though, came when the stage blew apart completely in a crash on a fast, sweeping descent with 55 kilometres to go. Riders were scattered and slumped all over the road.

The stand-out figure on GC coming over the worst was undoubtedly Ayuso, whose yellow-clad figure tried briefly to continue, only to fall again and lie slumped on the side of the road. A few minutes later race radio announced that Ayuso had to abandon and was taken to hospital for an immediate assessment, whilst it was also confirmed that Brandon McNulty had also quit.

Following the crash, a five rider group continued at the front of the group, with four Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe riders - Martínez, the Van Dijke brothers Tim and Mick and Nico Denz - plus Vingegaard. Even though Denz was dropped on the next Cat.2 climb, Red Bull still had a three-to-one advantage ahead on Vingegaard.

Coming onto the final ascent of Uchon, the four leaders had a two-minute advantage on lone chaser Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), with the nearest group containing Vauquelin at more than three.

Just five seconds separated Martínez and Vingegaard on GC, and after Mick van Dijke was quickly pushed out of the running, the battle for the day's honours looked sure to come down to a duel between climbing experts of the calibre of the Colombian and the Dane.

But surprisingly, just after Tim van Dijke raised the pace yet again on a grinding section of straightaway leading all the way to the final kilometre's 15% slopes, when Vingegaard attacked with 1 kilometre to go, Martínez was simply unable to respond.

Looking back quickly to check, Martínez was in no position to follow, and even needed Van Dijke for some support before grinding clear for second. Vingegaard was very much in control of the situation, crossing the line with 42 seconds advantage.

The gaps on the rest of the field was simply jaw-dropping for a week-long race like Paris-Nice, enabling Vingegaard to move into the lead with a 52-second advantage on Martínez, whilst Steinhauser was now in third at 3:20 and the next pre-race favourite, Vauquelin, fourth at 3:39.

Paris-Nice is only at its half-way point, and the main mountain stages are - weather permitting - yet to come. But barring disaster, after such a dramatic day, Vingegaard looks all but certain of overall victory in his first race of 2026.

Results

Results powered by FirstCycling