Paris-Nice: Cousin wins stage 5 in Sisteron

Direct Energie's Jerome Cousin claimed a cagey victory in stage 5 of Paris-Nice, playing a smart strategic finale with breakaway companion Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin). With the peloton charging behind, Cousin calmly waited until the final 200 metres to make his move, powering to the line well ahead of the German.

The sprint was led home just four seconds later, with André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) taking third.

Race leader Luis Leon Sánchez (Astana) maintained his position on the stage, while Cousin's day-long efforts in the breakaway also earned him the polka dot jersey for taking the mountains classification lead. Sánchez leads Wout Poels (Team Sky) in the overall by 15 seconds, with Quick-Step Floors' Julian Alaphilippe and Movistar's Marc Soler another 11 seconds back.

"I had cramps towards the end," Cousin said. "The goal was to go for the breakaway and take the KOM jersey. I did not spare my efforts and we had a tacit agreement that if I went for the climbs they would leave me alone on the flat. Now when I saw that the victory was possible I worked hard to go after the Katusha rider and I played with his balls a little. That's the way I won. I'm so generous in my efforts all year and I was beaten in similar circumstances so many times before that I decided to maneuver differently for once and see if it worked. I didn't steal this.

"Last year I raced for only 30 days," Cousin said. "It's a great comeback. We've now won two stages, It's important for the team, but I must recover because I'm also supposed to be helping Lilian Calmejane make it into the top 10."

How it Unfolded

The 165km stage from Salon-de-Provence to Sisteron looked on paper like another likely day for the sprinters. The race included four categorised climbs, but with the final climb, the category 3 agent of Cote de la Marquise, topping out 13km from the finish, the sprinters' teams had this day marked down as another opportunity.

Those plans were laid to rest by Cousin and Politt, who bid adieu to the peloton early in the day when they joined Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) and Julien El Fares (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) off the front. Of the breakaway quartet, El Fares was the best-placed rider in the general classification, sitting in 54th place and 4:04 down on race leader Sánchez.

Cousin won the race to the top of the Pointu, taking seven KOM points for his efforts and giving himself a good shot of taking the jersey by the end of the day. The leaders' advantage swelled to 4:30 near the top of the category 1 Col de Legarde-d'Apt 76.5km into the day, and Cousin again scored maximum points, adding 10 more and taking his tally to a classification-leading 17. He added another point at the top of the penultimate climb of the day, the category 3  Col du Négron, which climbed for 5.9km at an average of three per cent.

From there, the riders faced a long descent to the finale of the stage, which featured a another short climb in the form of the Côte de la Marquise. The leaders hit the finishing circuit together, and with 19km to go they passed the finish line in Sisteron for the first time. Politt, Edet, Cousin, and El Fares came into Sisteron and took the bell with the gap standing at 2:15.

Politt attacked the breakaway with 15km to go, leaving his three former escapee partners to try and drag him back. Cousin attacked the chasing trio on the drag up to de la Marquise and was able to bridge to Politt just short of the final KOM, where he added a few more points to his tally.

Politt and Cousin then took the final descent together, with Politt supplying most of the power as Cousin ignored his pleas to come forward. Politt attacked several more times but could not jettison Cousin, and they came into the final kilometre together.

Politt jumped first, but his power was depleted by that point, and Cousin easily countered the move, leaving Politt in his wake as the German shook his head in disgust.

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