Geraint Thomas got safely through another day in Paris-Nice and remains the best-placed of the GC rides in 5th on GC. The team has complete confidence in their captain and are ready for the harder stages to come.

Geraint Thomas safely negotiated a third consecutive sprint stage to remain in the top five at Paris-Nice heading into the climbs.

The Welshman had a front-row seat as the peloton raced onto the Magny-Cours motor racing circuit and held his ground in the closing kilometres to finish in the main group.

The result placed Thomas fifth overall heading into a run of more selective stages, 21 seconds back on stage three winner and new race leader John Degenkolb.

The Giant-Shimano rider finally carved out a win after two second places to edge into the yellow jersey. The German beat home Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) and Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), the latter leapfrogging Thomas after securing bonus seconds.

As the day wore on Team Sky solidified their presence at the front of the peloton, Luke Rowe and Edvald Boasson Hagen piloting the line as the pace began to rise on the approach to the circuit.

After the stage Sports Director Nicolas Portal explained that the team were committed to rallying around Thomas in a bid to protect his small time buffer for as long as possible.

He said: “The team did a really good job and everyone understands that it is so important that we don’t lose even a single second with G, especially in the final three kilometres. If some small gaps open up then the race commissaries will be quick to add in some time splits. So it was all about protecting him all the way into the finish and then he was able to put himself in to a good position.

“The race will change now with some climbs tomorrow. We have some tough tests towards the end of the stage. With around 12km to go they hit the final climb. It is 3km long and half of that is made up of some really steep steps up. It is a stop-start climb and at the steepest section it is 25 percent! So it’s a key climb and the guys need to be on it.

“The good thing is that G has a few seconds over his rivals. We’d really like to keep that in our pockets for as long as possible but we’ll see how it pans out. There could be a small group at the finish tomorrow. We don’t really know how it will turn out. But it will certainly be tricky.”

You can read our preview of tomorrow's stage here and follow our live coverage at 14.25 CET on CyclingQuotes.com/live.