In the 153 kilometer long stage between Crêches-sur-Saône and Rive-de-Gier today, the riders had to climb 4 difficulties. A 5 rider strong breakaway was formed after an attack by Sylvain Chavanel and when this breakaway, including the one who initiated it and ended it off, was taken back at a few kilometers from the finish, several attacks succeeded. The one by Carlos Betancur finally turned out to be the right one because the Colombian rider who initiated this attack managed to beat the two other riders who jumped with him on the finish line. A nice result for the rider of the AG2R La Mondiale team who also climbs up to the 4th position in the general classification at 5 seconds of the leader Geraint Thomas.

The summary of the 5th stage of Paris-Nice 2014 between Crêches-sur-Saône and Rive-de-Gier

After the start in Crêches-sur-Saône at noon, several attempts preceded the one which led to today's breakaway, initiated by Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling). The rider of the Swiss team was expected to be in front of the race in this stage, especially after his mechanical problems yesterday, and he was accompanied in this leading group by Jan Bakelants (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Matthew Busche (Trek Factory Racing), Gorka Izaguirre (Movistar Team) and Brice Feillu (Bretagne-Séché Environnement).

On the top of the first climb of the day, the Col de Brouilly (on the same mountain as in the final part of the stage yesterday but on a less difficult side), the gap of the 5 leading riders was already 2'30" when Chavanel arrives first on top. Chavanel again takes the points on the Côte de Plantigny where the gap is up to 2'50".

Team Sky then took the first positions in the peloton to control the gap with the leading groupe and at the intermediate sprint in Brindas, which was won by Jan Bakelants, the gap was down to 1'50".
On top of the next climb, the Côte de Saint-Martin-en-Haut, the advantage of the leading group dropped down to 50 seconds when Sylvain Chavanel takes 4 more points for the King of the Mountains classification and thus reaches the same score as Valerio Agnoli (Astana) who took the polka dot jersey thanks to his place in yesterday's breakaway.

When the riders get on the final circuit, which was 39 kilometers long, and thus at about 13 kilometers from the first crossing of the finish line, the leading riders only have a 30 seconds advantage on the peloton in which Team Sky's still in the lead, accompanied by riders of the FDJ.fr team. While approaching the finish line, Europcar takes over this role and speeds up a bit, which leads to a break in the peloton. The FDJ.fr team again takes over the lead and crosses the finish line with the first peloton 30 seconds after Jan Bakelants who also won the second intermediate sprint. The second peloton doubles this gap and crosses the finish line with a 1 minute gap on the Belgian rider who won the stage of the Tour de France 2013 in Ajaccio.

In Montbressieux, at 23 kilometers from the finish, Sylvain Chavanel realises that if he wants to win this stage he has to attack and before the breakaway is taken back by the peloton he thus goes on solo. He never manages to create a big gap however and "mimosa" is thus rapidly taken back by the peloton from which Bob Jungels (Trek Factory Racing) attacks on the Côte de Sainte-Catherine. When the Luxembourg champion is taken back it's Stefan Denifl (IAM Cycling)'s turn to attack, at 2 kilometers from the top, but the Austrian rider rapidly hands over his place to Vincenzo Nibali, the leader of the Astana team, who starts the descent first, ahead of Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale).

At 9 kilometers from the finish, Betancur is the next rider to attack and he gets company from Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and again Bob Jungels. This leading trio stays ahead until the finish in Rive-de-Gier and Carlos Betancur, who was in the last position in this group in the last kilometer, gets past his two last competitors in the last 100 meters and finally puts his hands in the air on the finish line.

The photos of the 5th stage of Paris-Nice 2014: Crêches-sur-Saône > Rive-de-Gier

You can discover a selection of 36 photos of this 5th stage of Paris-Nice 2014 in the dedicated photo seciton:

>> The photos of the stage Crêches-sur-Saône > Rive-de-Gier in Paris-Nice 2014

The classifications of Paris-Nice 2014 after the 5th stage

After this 5th stage and with only 3 stages to go, the classifications of this Paris-Nice 2014 are as follows:

Stage classification for 5/ Crêches-sur-Saône > Rive-de-Gier

Here's the top 10 of the classification of this stage:

1/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - 3h38'15"
2/ Bob Jungels (Trek Factory Racing)
3/ Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team)
4/ Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar) - +0'02"
5/ Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
6/ Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (Team Giant-Shimano)
7/ Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Belisol)
8/ Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team)
9/ Borut Bozic (Astana Pro Team)
10/ Marco Marcato (Cannondale)

General classification

In the general classification, Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) keeps the lead but, by taking 2 seconds on the finish line and thanks to the 10 bonus seconds, Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) gets closer to the leader of the general classification, at 5 seconds.

John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) however remains the main competitor of Thomas (at 3 seconds) and the British rider said that tomorrow's stage could be decisive and that he was thus not sure he would still wear the yellow jersey after tomorrow's stage.

1/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - 21h52'42"
2/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - +0'03"
3/ Tom-Jelte Slagter (Garmin-Sharp) - +0'04"
4/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - +0'05"
5/ José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team) - +0'08"

Points classification

The green jersey of the points classification stays on John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano)'s shoulders:

1/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - 39 points
2/ José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team) - 20 points
3/ Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar) - 17 points
4/ Moreno Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - 16 points
5/ Tom-Jelte Slagter (Garmin-Sharp) - 15 points

King of the Mountains classification

In the King of the Mountains classification, Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) arrived at equal level with Valerio Agnoli (Astana). The French rider will thus wear the polka dot jersey of this classification tomorrow.

1/ Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) - 12 points
2/ Valerio Agnoli (Astana) - 12 points
3/ Tom-Jelte Slagter (Garmin-Sharp) - 9 points
4/ Christophe Laborie (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) - 9 points
5/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - 8 points

Young riders classification

John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) also keeps the lead in the young riders classification, but the white jersey will still be worn by Tom-Jelte Slagter (Garmin-Sharp) who is 1 second behind the German rider:

1/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - 21h52'45"
2/ Tom-Jelte Slagter (Garmin-Sharp) - +0'01"
3/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - +0'02"
4/ Wilco Kelderman (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - +0'12"
5/ Jon Izaguirre (Movistar Team) - +0'16"

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice 2014 | Paris-Nice

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