Paris-Nice 2024: Skjelmose wins action-packed stage, McNulty back in yellow

First the battle for the green jersey and the mountain jersey raged, then it was all about the overall classification. The 198 kilometre long 6th stage of Paris-Nice with the finish in La Colle-sur-Loup had a lot to offer. The day's winner was Mattias Sjkelmose (Lidl-Trek), with Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) finishing behind him in second and third place.

For McNulty, this meant a return to the top of the overall standings, which he already held after the team time trial on stage 3. He is now 23 seconds ahead of compatriot Jorgenson, who now wears white as the best young pro. Jorgenson created the basis for the trio to break away with an attack. When the top favourites Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) looked at each other after an attack by the Slovenian 30 kilometres from the finish, he took to his heels and was joined shortly afterwards by Skjelmose and McNulty.

Skjelmose not proud of his tactical play

In the chasing group, which also included Luke Plapp (Team Jayco-AlUla), who was still wearing the yellow jersey at the time, Evenepoel had to do almost all of the chasing. He was unable to reduce the gap to the leading trio on his own. As a result, the group only crossed the finish line 53 seconds after the best - while Evenepoel was only fifth overall, Roglic even slipped out of the top 10. As tomorrow's stage will be greatly shortened due to bad weather and in its new form is hardly heavy enough to pull out large gaps, only the final day around Nice remains to correct the result.

"I'm a bit surprised. I felt good, but on days like this you also need a lot of luck," said stage winner Skjelmose in an initial reaction. "I thought that Remco or Primoz would close the gap to Matteo. But they didn't. Then I tried and Brandon joined me. In the end, I played off my lower position in the overall standings," said Skjelmose, explaining why he didn't do any leading work in the final kilometres. "That's not the best way to win, but the others were simply stronger than me today."

Fierce battle for the mountain and sprinter jerseys

But even before the battle for the overall classification, the other two jerseys were very active. Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) in the dotted jersey had to fend off many attacks from Cristian Scaroni (Astana Qazqastan), but was ultimately able to defend his jersey. Both had made it into the group of the day with a lot of effort and took four of the five mountain classifications between them.

And Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) had also tried like hell to make it into the group and fight for a possible stage win as a breakaway rider. But the green jersey was also joined by his toughest rival Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ). In the end, the group was caught, but Pedersen was still able to keep his jersey.

Paris-Nice 2024 - Results: The top 10 of stage 6

1. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) 4:36:51
2. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +0:00
3. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:00
4. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:52
5. Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +0:53
6. Aurelien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon - AG2R La Mondiale) +0:53
7. Felix Gall (Decathlon - AG2R La Mondiale) +0:53
8. Wilco Kelderman (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:53
9. Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:53
10. Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:53

The current standings in the overall standings

1. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) 22:15:58
2. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:23
3. Luke Plapp (Team Jayco-AlUla) +0:34
4. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +0:54
5. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) +1:03
6. Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:14
7. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +1:30
8. Felix Gall (Decathlon - AG2R La Mondiale) +1:36
9. Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan Team) +1:37
10. Wilco Kelderman (Visma | Lease a Bike) +1:39

>> Results of Paris-Nice 2024 at a glance

>> Paris-Nice 2024: This is the route

>> Cold starters Roglic and Evenepoel - these are the favourites for Paris-Nice 2024

How the 6th stage of Paris-Nice 2024 went

After two professionals from dsm-firmenich PostNL had already failed to finish the stage the day before, two more - Tobias Lund Andresen and Nils Eekhoff - were no longer at the start of stage 6. Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was also absent and thus missed a lively start to the day's almost 200 kilometres between Sisteron and La Colle-sur-Loup.

After a trio around Jonas Rutsch (EF Education EasyPost) initially failed to get away, Burgaudeau also failed with his attack, which may have been due to the high initial speed of over 56 km/h in the first half hour. The peloton stayed together until kilometre 46 before the next riders tried. And they were quite prominent.

Pedersen is determined to get into the group

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) in the green jersey had Remi Cavagna (Movistar) on his wheel, who had already tried it with Burgaudeau. The duo were joined shortly afterwards by a second with Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) and Anthon Charmig (Astana Qazaqstan), but this quartet was also caught again shortly afterwards. As soon as they were caught, a trio led by Joshua Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) took the lead before another one, again with Pedersen, jumped to the front. While the Dane tried hard, the conviction in the peloton was clear not to let him go. And so these six escapees were also brought back after 60 kilometres.

However, this did not ensure calm in the peloton on the approach to the first mountain classification of the day at the Col des Lèques (2nd category). Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan), who still has a say in the fight for the mountain jersey, was the next to try, but was brought back together with three other pros. But only to break away again when Burgaudeau and some companions, including Georg Zimmermann (Intermarche-Wanty), launched another attack.

Ten-strong leading group with Zimmermann finds itself

Scaroni finally had his nose in front at the mountain classification and secured five points ahead of Burgaudeau (3) after 70 kilometres, but with the peloton only a few seconds behind him. And so Pedersen used the descent for another attempt to finally form a breakaway group for the day. He made it to the front - as did Pithie and Marco Haller (Bora-Hansggrohe), who followed. Finally, the resistance in the peloton was broken and the ten-man group quickly built up a lead of over two minutes.

With temperatures only slightly above 0 degrees in the higher altitudes and sporadic rain, the peloton had reduced the gap to under a minute again at the second mountain classification on the Col de Luens (2nd category), where Burgaudeau was ahead of Scaroni this time. By the time they reached the Côte de la Blachette (3rd category) after 92 kilometres, where the Frenchman once again put the Italian in his place and collected two more points for the mountain jersey than his rival, the peloton, led by the entire Ineos Grenadiers team, had chipped away further seconds from the lead.

Roglic outmanoeuvred

While the retirements of Alexis Gougeard (Cofidis) and Hugo Hofstetter (Israel-Premier Tech) were reported along the way, the leading group had reached the highest point of the day with 85 kilometres to go. With the lead established at around one minute, the riders initially entered a long downhill section, at the end of which the gap was almost completely exhausted.

Burgaudeau and Haller attacked on the climb to the Col de Gourdon (2nd category) to avoid being caught by the rest of the group. But they didn't make it to the summit ahead of the peloton either. Nevertheless, the Frenchman took the points and once again scored two more points than Scaroni, who had latched onto his rear wheel to sprint to the finish line.

The fast pace caused the peloton to break into three groups 55 kilometres before the finish, the first two of which reunited 30 kilometres before the finish. Immediately after crossing the finish line, the road climbed steeply up the Côte de La Colle-sur-Loup. Roglic put the pedal to the metal and broke away from the group, with only Evenepoel, Plapp, Jorgenson and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) able to follow. And while more riders rolled up behind, the American went one better and pulled away.

Evenepoel fights almost alone

But the road to the finish remained long. Skjelmose and McNulty were able to catch up to the front, behind them a group organised itself around Plapp's yellow jersey, to which Buitrago's white jersey no longer belonged after a crash and defect. Evenepoel did the main work for the chasers, whose gap had grown to half a minute 17 kilometres before the finish, otherwise only Roglic and his helper Aleksandr Vlasov provided support. And so the lead continued to grow until the finish.

In the sprint, Skjelmose, who had stayed out of the pace work in the final kilometres, had the best legs. And while the Dane secured the stage win, McNulty and Jorgenson sprinted for the remaining bonus seconds. It took almost a minute before Evenepoel led the chasers to the finish.