Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) proved his status as a great escape artist by claiming his second WorldTour victory from a breakaway on stage 5 of Paris-Nice. The Kazakh attacked over the top of the final climb with less than 30km to go and managed to hold off a reduced peloton by 21 seconds. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) beat Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) in the sprint for second while Lutsenko moved into second overall, 6 seconds behind Matthews.

 

In the 2014 Vuelta a Espana, Alexey Lutsenko nearly took a big breakaway win and sent a strong warning that he can never be underestimated when he takes off in the finale of a tough race. He underlined his class last year at the Tour de Suisse by taking his first WorldTour win from a breakaway on day when Jan Bakelants had been deeply impressed by the strength of the Kazakh.

 

Hence, the peloton definitely knew that they had to be careful when Lutsenko attacked in the finale of today’s fifth stage of Paris-Nice. However, they reacted way too late and there was no one stopping the Kazakh from riding away with another WorldTour victory and moving into second overall.

 

After an early passage of Mont Ventoux had failed to do much damage, the race came to life as the peloton approached the penultimate climb with 40km to go. At that point, Stijn Vandenbergh (Team Quick Step), Lars Boom (Astana), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Edward Theuns (Trek), Jesus Herrada (Movistar) and Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie) had an advantage of 2 minutes over the peloton which was led by Amets Txurruka, Sam Bewley (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Pavel Kochetkov (Katusha).

 

Duchesne was feeling good and attacked from the breakaway before hitting the climb with an advantage of 1.50. However, he started to lose ground quickly as Tinkoff apparently had big plans. Pawel Poljanski upped the pace significantly and made the peloton explode to pieces.

 

The climb had a very steep section near the top and Duchesne nearly came to a standstill before he crested the summit as the lone leader. Herrada was second, Courteille third and Boom fourth. Meanwhile, Rafal Majka took over for Tinkoff but it was Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale) who launched the first attack, passing Vandenbergh who had been dropped from the break. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) and Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE) also joined the move but they were caught as they crested the summit, with Slagter cresting the top as the first rider.

 

Slagter went again on the descent and rejoined Boom. However, he quickly waited for the peloton while Boom made it back to Herrada and Courteille. Further back, there were riders all over the road as the steep climb had made the peloton explode. Initially, the first was down to around 20 riders but very quickly it was a 40-rider group that gathered.

 

Alexander Kristoff had missed out and was with numerous teammates in a small group that was 35 seconds behind with 30km to go. Orica-GreenEDGE wanted to keep him at bay so they hit the front with Daryl Impey. He brought the three chasers back.

 

Duchesne hit the final climb with an advantage of 1.10 and was pleased to learn that Impey was the only rider working in the peloton. However, he still lost ground and he only had 40 seconds as he approached the summit.

 

Less than 1km from the top, Lutsenko made his first move and was joined by Yates and Quentin Pacher (Delko). Sergio Henao (Sky) also tried to be part of the action but he had the rest of the peloton in tow. Pacher made a small surge to lead Yates, Jose Herrada (Movistar) and Lutsenko over the top.

 

Lutsenko attacked immediately after the climb and as BMC hit the front to help Richie Porte get to the bottom safely, he quickly got a big gap over the 50-rider peloton. Duchesne was just 25 seconds ahead while Kristoff still had to close a 45-second gap to the bunch.

 

When Amael Moinard and Ben Hermans had guided Porte to the bottom, the pace went down and the peloton almost came to a standstill. Movistar, Ag2r and Giant-Alpecin patrolled the front but were not chasing, meaning that Duchesne quickly increased his gap to one minute with 19km to go. At the same time, the Kristoff group easily closed the gap and rejoined the group.

 

Impey started to chase and when Lawson Craddock (Cannondale), Ian Stannard (Sky), Sergey Lagutin and Kochetkov (Katusha) also came to the fore, it looked like we were heading for a sprint. Meanwhile, Lutsenko caught Duchesne with 16km to go at a time when the gap was still 50 seconds.

 

Duchesne was unable to follow Lutsenko and quickly fell back to the peloton. Lutsenko was losing ground and the gap was down to 30 seconds with 11km to go.

 

However, suddenly it was only Lagutin and Kochetkov working and they were losing ground. With 9km to go, the gap was suddenly 40 seconds. That prompted Craddock, Impey and Matteo Bono (Lampre-Merida) to come to the fore but with 6km to go, the chase stopped completely.

 

At that point the gap was 30 seconds but with no one chasing, it was not coming down. It went out to 35 seconds with 35 seconds with 4km to go where Craddock was back on the front.

 

Inside the final 3km, Katusha hit the front with Sven Erik Bystrm but as they took the wrong way in a roundabout, they completely lost positon. Hence, Giant-Alpecin suddenly found themselves on the front with 1.5km to go when the gap was still 23 seconds.

 

Lagutin got back to lead the chase as they passed the flamme rouge but it was too late. Lutsenko had plenty of time to celebrate his solo win. In the peloton, Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) was leading Davide Cimolai out in the sprint but Kristoff was in a class of his own, easily beating Michael Matthews and the Italian in the battle for second.

 

His time gains and the 10 bonus seconds mean that Lutsenko moves into second in the overall standings and he is now just 6 seconds behind Matthews who picked up four bonus seconds at the finish. The race leader faces a much harder test tomorrow which is the day of the queen stage. The riders will tackle a total of five category 2 climbs and one category 1 climb on a day full of ups and downs before they get to the bottom of the final climb of La Madone d’Utelle. It averages 5.7% over 15.3km but has a pretty easy second half.

 

Mont Ventoux on the menu

After yesterday’s sprint stage, the riders faced some serious climbing on stage 5 which brought them over 198km from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to Salon-de-Provence. After a flat start and an early category 3 climb, they tackled the mighty Mont Ventoux but the top came with 126.5km still to ride. After the descent, there were three category 2 climbs in the otherwise flat finale, with the final climb coming with 28.5km to go.

 

For the second day in a row, it was nice sunshine when the riders gathered for the start. Sergio Paulinho (Tinkoff) was absent when a 164-rider group headed out for their neutral ride.

 

A strong breakaway

Many had expected a bit of a fight in the early part of the race but it turned out to be a very quiet start to the stage. Stijn Vandenbergh (Team Quick Step), Lars Boom (Astana), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Edward Theuns (Trek), Jesus Herrada (Movistar), Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie), Matthias Brändle (IAM) and Wouter Wippert (Cannondale) managed to escape right from the gun. They had to fight a little to get a gap and were only 25 seconds ahead after 5km of racing but the peloton soon decided to take a breather. After 9km of racing, the gap had gone out to 3.15, and it reached 8 minutes at the 19km mark.

 

The break was not interested in the day's first sprint which was won by Boom ahead of Herrada and Duchesne. At the same time, they continued to increase the advantage which had reached an enormous 11.05 after 27km of racing. At the time, the Sky and Tinkoff patrolled the front.

 

Ventoux splits the peloton

The break was determined not to take it easy and covered 44.8 kilometers during the first hour in which the gap had started come go down and so was now only 9.50. Herrada got closer to the mountains jersey by winning today's first KOM sprint ahead of Boom and Duchesne after the break had lost another 30 seconds of their lead.

 

The riders hit the bottom of the mighty Mont Ventoux with a lead of eight minutes and the steep slopes immediately took their toll. Brändle was dropped from the break while Sky increased  the pace considerably. André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) was one of the first to be dropped, and as he has not yet completely recovered from his broken rib, he chose to withdraw. So did Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r). Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), Evaldas Siskevicius (Delko) and the EtixxQuickStep duo of Tom Boonen and Marcel Kittel were also among the many that lost contact.

 

The break splits up

The break lost ground and only had a lead of 7.40 at the 63km mark. This prompted Courteille and Herrada to increase speed, and they escaped from the front group. Duchesne managed to rejoin them and the trio had a lead of 5.55 one kilometer from the top. At this time they had been in the saddle for two hours, and the Ventoux passage had an influence on the average speed which was only 24.7km/h in the second hour.

 

Herrada won the KOM sprint ahead Courteille and Duchesne who had lost 15 seconds at the top. Vandenbergh and Boom were next, 55 seconds behind, while Theuns had lost 2.10 and Wippert 2.30. The bunch reached the top with a time loss of six minutes.

 

The break loses ground

Courteille, Boom and Vandenbergh got back to the front on the descent where Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) crashed and unfortunately had to abandon. It did not stop the peloton that had reduced the lead to 5.10 after 83km of racing. At this Point, Wippert and Theuns were one minute behind while the group with Bouhanni and Kittel had lost 2.50 to the peloton.

 

The chasers lost ground and split up. Thus Wippert was at four minutes and Theuns at five minutes at the 107km mark. As the field was only 5.15 behind, it didn’t take long before Theuns was caught. The Bouhanni-Kittel group approached and was now only 1.30 behind the bunch which had covered 43km during the third hour.

 

Schleck crashes

Wippert eventually chose to give up and the break continued to lose ground. They started the last 70 kilometers with a lead of four minutes.

 

Courteille managed to beat Herrada in the next KOM sprint, with Duchesne, Boom and Vandenbergh being next, before the peloton crested the summit 3.25 later. Vandenbergh led Boom and Herrada across the line in the final intermediate sprint.

 

Entering the final 50km, the gap was down to 2.10 and it was Kochetkov, Txurruka and Bewley setting the pace. They briefly slowed down with 45km to when a big crash split the field. Patrick Bevin (Cannondale) and Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) were involved and had to work hard to rejoin the peloton. Unfortunately, Frank Schleck (Trek) was forced to abandon. Moments later they hit the next climb where the action really started.