Paris-Nice 2025 Stage 5

March 13, 2025 Stage 5 is the first of two days over 200KM in a row and promises to be a hard one. There are no big climbs but the route rolls all day and they will have accumulated 2,600M of elevation by the finish in Côte-Saint-André in the Isère department. Seven categorized climbs pepper the route but five come in the last 50KM including the category 2 climb to the Notre-Dame-de-Sciez at the finish which is just 1.7KM but a stinging 11% average. The start was lightning fast and well ahead of the fastest predicted time. With 56KM to go, the average speed was still at 45KM/HR and only Ben Swift and Thibaud Gruel of Groupama FDJ made the break; their gap was 1 minute 40 seconds. When Swift and Gruel hit the Côte de Sibuze with 43KM to go, their lead was down to 50 seconds as UAE-XRG, Lidl-Trek, and Visma-Lease a Bike were battling for every inch of the road. Ineos were aggressive and sent Tobias Foss on the attack for a second day in a row on the Côte de Sibuze. Foss made contact with the break at 42KM to go while another attack went from the bunch by Oscar Riesebeek of Alpecin-Deceuninck. Michael Matthews of Jayco AlUla was next to go, followed by Iván Romeo of Movistar. They quickly joined up with Riesebeek but the peloton was moving so quickly that the trio were pulled back with 33KM to go. Foss continued his raid and went solo with 30KM to go at the base of the 1KM Côte de Chavagneux. His advantage went up to 1 minute 15 seconds with 18KM to go as he started the Côte d'Arzay but things were brewing in the peloton. Kevin Geniets of Groupama FDJ ripped up the climb which brought the gap down to 40 seconds but he had the peloton in tow the entire way up. Over the top, Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe organized a lead out for the Intermediate Sprint with 13KM to go but Foss still had lead and took the maximum 6 seconds. Florian Lipowitz tried to get second place but he was overtaken by Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek who was protecting Mattias Skjelmose's GC position. Foss was caught just outside 4KM to go by a reduced bunch of about 40 riders. Lidl-Trek were pushing on for position going into the final climb to the Notre-Dame-de-Sciez. Riders went out the back as soon as the climb started and, with 800M to go under the pressure of Brandon McNulty of UAE-XRG, race leader Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike was dropped. Third overall, Mattias Skjelmose, also struggled and was dropped from the group 500M from the line. Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike took over and set a hard pace and with 300M to go, he accelerated and only Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious, Harold Tejada and Clément Champoussin of XDS-Astana could follow. Martinez attacked with 150M from the line around the final steep corner and no one had an answer. He took the win 3 seconds ahead of Champoussin who came across second with Jorgenson in third and Tejada in fourth, all on the same time. Jorgenson takes the GC lead once again, now 22 seconds up on his teammate Vingegaard. Lipowitz climbed to third at 36 seconds.