Paris-Nice: Jonas Vingegaard launches 20km solo attack for impressive stage 5 victory, extends already massive GC lead

Paris-Nice leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) amply reaffirmed his GC domination of this year's race with a second solo uphill victory in as many stages, leaving the Danish star in total control of his GC rivals with three days left to go.

In marked contrast to his pathway to Wednesday's triumph, captured in brutally difficult conditions by attacking close to the line at Uchon, 24 hours later, the Dane went from much greater distance, striking hard at 20 kilometres to go in the sunshine, well before any of his rivals had even begun to think about attacking.

Powering away on the hardest ascent of the stage, the brutally steep Cat.1 Côte de Saint-Jean-Muzols, Vingegaard increased his advantage to nearly a minute on the last classified climb, the longer but easier Côte de Saint-Barthélemy-le-Plain, with the gap on a demoralised and reduced group of chasers continuing to rise all the way to the finish.

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Smiling and waving at the TV cameras as he closed in on the finish at the top of the steadier ascent of Colombier le Vieux, Vingegaard finally crossed the line with an advantage of nearly two minutes ahead of Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep), closing off any already fast-diminishing debate on his GC superiority in superb style.

Dani Martínez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) remains second overall, Tobias Steinhauser (EF Education-Easy Post) is in third, but with Vingegaard's amply increased advantage, the fight for overall victory in the 2026 Paris-Nice is now all but officially over – and Vingegaard has proved beyond doubt he is looking in exceptional shape for his even bigger challenges, like the Giro d'Italia, later this season.

"I really wanted to win today and so did the team. They did an amazing job," Vingegaard, now enjoying an advantage of 3:22 over closest rival Martínez in a race often decided by seconds, said afterwards.

"They made sure there was a good group out in the front, and then they kept the gap very short. We wanted to win and take as much time as possible, and once again, thanks to my teammates, they deserve the champagne tonight."

It so happened that the race went along the road where Vingegaard crashed during Paris-Nice last year, eventually leading to the loss of the yellow jersey, his abandon, and a concussion, but he said he hadn't been aware until he reached the place in question.

"It's nice to take revenge now, and to win here on such a beautiful day, the weather is beautiful, and it's been an amazing day for me and the team. For sure it's not over, there's still three stages left, a lot can happen, but we just have to stay focussed until Nice."

How it unfolded

Coming hard on the heels of such a memorably tough day in the hills of central France, you might have thought the peloton would take it easy on the longest stage of this year's edition of Paris-Nice and the only one over 200 kilometres. But instead, a relentless series of unsuccessful attacks kept the peloton on the boil and the kilometres clicking by fast without even one breakaway managing to stick.

Finally, a quarter of the way through the stage and after a first hour run off at a searing 51.6 kmh, skirmishing on the first ascent of five of the day, the Cat.3 Côte de Lentilly culminated in a five-man move.

The only Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider to miss the echelon on Wednesday, so presumably with a point to prove, Aleksandr Vlasov, was joined by Ineos Grenadiers time trialling powerhouse Josh Tarling, his Groupama-FDJ United counterpart Rémi Cavagna, Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar) and Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM).

The five were all far enough down overall – Cavagna was 15 minutes back – to not cause a stir when they made a move, and unsurprisingly, therefore, they rapidly forged open a gap of over a minute on the hilly roads south running loosely parallel to the River Rhone.

The break's already good chances of staying away heightened considerably when they were joined by Spanish National Champion Iván Romeo (Movistar), Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar) and Victor Campenaerts (Vismal-Lease a Bike).

It was unclear, though, whether Campenaerts could also be present to play a role helping Vingegaard in a late attack should the race leader try to bridge across on the final climbs, but Movistar's managing to get three stage hunters in the move of eight arguably more than made up for it.

The octet sped towards the first ascent, the Côte de Secheras, with an advantage of 1:25, Visma-Lease a Bike's nominal control on the front of the equally fast-moving bunch being matched by Ineos Grenadiers and EF Education-EasyPost.

The brutal raising of the pace on the climb caused the break to accelerate and fall apart, even though Cepeda turned an admirably strong ride to crown the Secheras with 20 seconds in hand on Prodhomme and Vlasov.

On the flat that followed, the Ecuadorian still had a 40-second advantage on the peloton, too, despite Bruno Armirail managing to singlehandedly whittle it down to just 20 riders for Visma.

But on the short but brutally steep Cat.1 Côte de Saint-Jean-de-Muzols, that all changed as Prodhomme and Vlasov were swept up by Ineos, also present in numbers on the bunch, and then Campenaerts – impressively given he'd been in the break – closed in relentlessly on Cepeda.

Ineos and Visma took turns on the front of a bunch now converted into a lead group of roughly a dozen riders, then, with 21 kilometres to go, with Dani Martínez beginning to struggle on the steepest slopes of the climb, Vingegaard launched a powerful attack. Nobody could follow him as the gradient rose to 12%, leaving Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), third overall, also struggling..

Over the summit, Vingegaard had an advantage of nearly 20 seconds on lone chaser Lenny Martínez (Bahrain Victorious), also making an important upwards-GC statement after David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ United) abandoned.

Working for Kévin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley, Ineos did their best to try and react behind, and on the flatter section that followed, they managed to limit the gap to around 30 seconds.

But there was very little chance of their stopping Vingegaard, visibly unleashed after taking such a difficult stage on Wednesday.

"We had to adapt the plan a few times," Vingegaard said later, "initially it was to take off when I did, but then the break got a big gap, and we thought I'd have to try to bridge across the first climb."

"So then we went back to the original plan, the whole team was there for me, they sacrificed themselves for me, and it was amazing. I'm happy I can pay it back."

"I got a gap even before I had to attack because of Victor [Campenaerts], he did an incredible leadout today, so of course I wasn't over my limit to try and drop the other guys, and you stay within your limit."

Thanks to all those circumstances, the tide was flowing relentlessly in Vingegaard's favour after he went away, and the divided and demoralised opposition only contributed to that tendency over the final ascents of the day by attacking each other rather than a concerted chase.

With the battle for the right to stand on the podium in full swing, when Paret-Peintre went clear around five kilometres from the line, it brought zero response from the nine other chasers. Eventually, they crossed the line a full 2:20 behind Vingegaard: in a race like Paris-Nice, a time-chasm.

By the time they reached the finish line at Colombier-le-Vieux, Vingegaard had done everything expected of him: a cheerful exchange with the team car, increasing the gap step by step all the way to the line, and even having time to wave at his family before he reached the line. "You seem in total control", the TV commentators told him during the TV interview, and there was little doubt about that.

Racing continues on Friday with another hill stage from Barbentane to Apt, where the Cat.2 ascent of the Côte de Saignon (4.1km at 5%), peaking out just five kilometres from the finish, is likely to play a pivotal role. Then it's into Paris-Nice's usual final mountainous showdown weekend, but barring a major surprise, given Vingegaard's superiority, the race is all over bar the shouting.

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