On the first uphill finish of Paris-Nice on the fifth day of racing, Tom Dumoulin showed that he’s on the road to recovery from sickness before the race with a strong performance on the final climb to finish in the top 20, 1’04” down on the stage winner. Unfortunately it was not all good news for the team as Warren Barguil hit the deck with 10km to go as the road started to go upwards. 

Despite not looking in a hurry to get back up from the tarmac, Barguil managed to get back on the bike and finish the stage, before heading for further assessments with the team’s physicians.

The day got underway with a three rider breakaway which spent the majority of the day at the front of the race. Behind them the peloton was in a steady pursuit mode but the many categorised climbs along the route were still not to be underestimated and gradually the peloton thinned down.

The team were still present in the front peloton after the day’s penultimate climb with John Degenkolb, Koen de Kort and Georg Preidler helping to keep Dumoulin and Barguil in position and out of trouble. With 15km to go the front of the race was all back together and all eyes were on the final climb.

As the road started to ramp up a touch of wheels saw Warren Barguil hit the deck together with a few others. He was slow to get to his feet but he eventually got going again and managed to finish the stage. At the front of the race, Tom Dumoulin held on until the higher slopes and the big attacks, slipping back to the second group on the road to limit his losses and finish in 15th just over a minute in arrears.

At the front of the race it was a Team Sky 1-2 as Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas pulled away in the final kilometre to take the stage win, while Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-Quickstep) took third and resumed the race lead.

“Today was either going to go better than expected or not well, so I’m pretty pleased with the outcome,” Tom Dumoulin told the Giant-Alpecin website after the stage. “I felt good on the final climb but was still lacking a bit of power and didn’t have the shape for a top ten, and to follow when the last attacks came.

“I’ve tried to take it as easy as possible in the past few days to recover a bit. Now I hope that I can continue to improve and have a good final weekend.”

Coach Christian Guiberteau added to the statement by saying their worries about Warren Barguil was not precisely confirmed.

“We were a bit worried that Warren wasn’t going to be able to get back on the bike but eventually he was OK to continue and finish the stage which was good to see. I am pleased to see Tom coming around again and his chances of a good result overall are still good.

“The guys did a good job throughout the stage today and both John and Koen made it over the second to last ascent to be able to help Georg, Warren and Tom ahead of the last one. It was good to see five guys still there this late on.

“Hopefully Warren will feel alright to continue tomorrow but he’ll have some more checks this evening to make sure there’s no damage done.”