Paris-Nice: Søren Kragh Andersen wins individual time trial

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Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) put in a fairytale performance to win the stage 4 time trial at Paris-Nice. The Dane covered the 15km course in a time of 18:51 to hold off the late challenge of race leader Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) by six seconds. 

It was a tense finale for Kragh Andersen after Schachmann had posted the fastest time at the intermediate time check but the German crumbled in the last kilometres with Sunweb taking their first WorldTour win of the season. 

Kasper Asgreen rounded out the top three on a day that also saw Schachmann extend his lead in the overall standings.

After four stages, Schachmann leads Kragh Andersen by 58 seconds but the real damage saw the German put significant time into a number of the pre-race favourites with Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain McLaren), Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) all losing time. 

Nibali is now 1:18 off Schachmann's yellow jersey while Pinot is even further back at 1:30. Quintana is at 2:38.

Shachmann still has several difficult days to go in the race before he can relax but his closest rivals at this point appear to Sergio Higuita, Dylan Teuns and Tiesj Benoot. For home favourite Julian Alaphilippe, who was racing on home roads during the stage, the day ended in disappointment with the Frenchman conceding 36 seconds.

While Schachmann toasted another day in yellow the biggest smile came from the 25-year-old stage winner, who added another win to his growing palmares.

"I'm super happy. To be honest, it's a big relief and it finally came, my TT victory. It's super. I almost can't believe it, but I was really aiming for it. I did my best and my legs were good again. I like the hills, technical parts and tempo shifts so it was a super-good parcours for me. I'm here to help the team and help Tiesj. We'll go day by day for stage results and GC for him. This was my chance and I'm so happy I took it."

After three days of crosswind carnage, stage 4 was always going to see the pitch and tone of this year's Paris-Nice change. Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) was an early pace-setter, with Lawson Craddock (EF Pro Cycling) and Jan Tratnik posting noticeable times. However, it as Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren) who set tongues wagging with the fastest intermediate time check at 7km. He would eventually pay for his efforts and fade to fifth but his ride set the tone for a set up surprising times.

World hour record holder Victor Campenaerts, despite shaving his beard off this morning and posting a video on social media to announce such monumental news, never troubled the leaders, while Quintana and Pinot were always on the back foot.

Kasper Asgreen looked strong at the first check and then set the fastest time by less than one second but he was forced out of the hot seat by Anderson, who appeared to time both the undulating first section and the flat run-in perfectly. The Sunweb rider smashed through the finish with a time 12 seconds faster than his nearest rivals but none of the pre-race GC contenders could touch him.

Teuns and Benoot were consistent but fell away in the closing kilometres of their efforts, as Schachmann rolled up the first climb with a time that looked destined to net him his second stage win of the race. However, the German struggled towards the end of his race, and while he missed out on the win he still had the consolation of extending his GC lead. The gaps, even to the likes of Nibali and Pinot are not excessive enough to count them out from the overall picture but with just one pure summit finish they will have to race aggressively and hope that Schachmann begins to come undone.

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