Paris-Nice: Bonifazio wins stage 5

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While multiple races were being called off due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Paris-Nice peloton continued to make its way down France to La Cote-Saint-Andre, where Niccolo Bonifazio (Total Direct Energie) broke the heart of breakaway rider Jan Tratnik (Bahrain McLaren) in a thrilling finale.

Having toiled out front for the best part of 227km on the longest stage of the race, and having dropped his three breakaway companions, Tratnik looked set to rob the peloton as he entered the home straight alone.

However, the bunch came charging up at the very last moment, and Bonifazio sprang past him with just 60 metres to go.

The Italian’s turn of speed in the frantic finale was emphatic, and he won by some distance ahead of Tratnik’s teammate, Ivan Garcia Cortina and Bora-Hansgrohe’s Peter Sagan.

“Things are difficult in Italy at the moment, my family have to stay inside, they can’t go out,” Bonifazio said, referring to the coronavirus pandemic.

“For the team, it's an important day because Paris-Nice is a big race and goal for the season. I've worked well this winter but I've only done eight races and so I was lacking race rhythm in the opening stages. Today I felt good and made sure I was well placed in the final kilometres and then did my sprint and won. This is a little gift for the people at home."

Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) retained his overall lead as the general classification contenders finished safely in the bunch, but the German was forced onto the defensive when Julian Alaphilippe and his Deceuninck-QuickStep team launched attacks in the final 15km.

The stage had looked like a straightforward chase of a breakaway ahead of a bunch sprint, but the intermediate sprint with 17km to go briefly changed all that. By that point, Tratnik had just Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale) for company, Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) and Anthony Turgis (Total Direct Energie) having been dropped, thus leaving one bonus second for the first rider from the peloton. Dylan Teuns (Bahrain McLaren) hit out and was challenged by Sergio Higuita. The Belgian just edged the Colombian to move to three seconds behind him in the overall standings, and to 1:09 from Schachmann.

Alaphilippe showed no interest in the intermediate sprint but, just after Teuns and Higuita settled back into the bunch, the Frenchman launched a stinging acceleration. He was joined by Cortina before Schachmann, looking around to see a peloton lined out at breaking point, decided he had to take matters into his own hands and surged to close the gap. Almost immediately, QuickStep, in offensive mood given their sprinter Sam Bennett is no longer in the race, sent Bob Jungels and Kasper Asgreen up the road. They were joined by Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren) and Nikias Arndt (Sunweb), but were caught with 9km to go.

A couple of kilometres later, Tratnik dropped Gougeard and went it alone, taking 25 seconds into the final 5km and holding it admirably. Lotto Soudal stopped chasing when Caleb Ewan punctured with 2km to go but Sunweb took it up and the gap fell to 10 seconds with 1000 metres to go.

Tratnik made his way to the line and looked set for a memorable victory but took a look around with 100 metres to go and saw Bonifazio springing from the pack. One last plea to his legs to produce one final acceleration fell on deaf ears and he bowed his head as the sprinters piled past.

Tratnik, Gougeard, Turgis, and Mullen had broken free of the bunch after 8km and built up a lead of seven minutes before the chase began in earnest with just over 100km to go. With his teammate Jonathan Hivert in the polka dot jersey as leader of the mountains classification, Turgis made a point of going after the four minor categorised climbs – two in the first 40km, two in the last 60km.

It was a bruising day for the bunch as seven riders abandoned: Oliver Naesen (AG2R), Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Julien El Fares (Nippo Delko), Diego Rosa (Areak-Samsic), Fredrik Backaert (B&B Hotels Vital Concept), and the EF Pro Cycling dup of Michael Woods and Lawson Craddock. While most retired due to illness, Woods crashed heavily with 50km to go and lay on the ground in distress before receiving medial attention. To make matters worse for EF, Tejay van Garderen did no start the stage, reportedly to beat the travel ban about to be imposed by US president Donald Trump.

The stage continued and Mullen and Turgis fell away on the false flat up towards the late intermediate sprint. The GC contenders came to the fore briefly but it was Tratnik who ensured drama to the last and Bonifazio who collected his second win of the season.

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