Today's queen stage of Paris-Nice passes through terrain that is well-known from the Tour du Haut-Var. As the 2013 winner of that race, French champion Arthur Vichot is ready to strike on the well-known soil.

It may have gone unnoticed by many but one of the strongest riders in Paris-Nice has been French champion Arthur Vichot. The FDJ leader has been among the best on the climbs and is well-positioned on GC where he sits 11th, 19 seconds off the overall lead.

Today it is time for the race's queen stage that passes through much of the terrain that is known from the Tour du Haut-Var. In 2013 that race was won by Vichot who is looking forward to being a key protagonist.

Yesterday both he and co-leader Arnold Jeannesson got safely through another tricky day but the team regretted that Vichot hadn't joined the race-winning move.

"There was a scare with Arnold Jeannesson that almost crashed under the flamme rouge, broke his front wheel and therefore finished behind the peloton but he was classified in the same time," ports director Franck Pineau said. "Arthur Vichot remained vigilant and it is only a small thing that prevents him from joining the three leaders, the winner of the stage Betancur (AG2R-La Mondiale), Fulglsang (Astana) and Jungels ( Trek Factory), when they attacked 8 kilometers from the finish. He wanted to go but was hampered by Nibali (Astana) who had just sat up and unintentionally blocked him.

"The key is that our leader feels good. He has great legs, recovers very well and is very happy with the work done for him. He really praised his teammates after the finish and I must say they do a great job. Anyway, in the WorldTour, it's impossible to do anything without a great team and in this area, FDJ.fr have taken our  responsibility. Both during the first three days to help Nacer [Bouhanni] and now to support Arthur and Arnold.

"Friday is the Tour du Haut-Var, with the côte des Tuillères, col de Bourigaille and the Mur de Fayence and frankly, it inspires us!"

On a sad note, stage one winner Nacer Bouhanni abandoned the race, suffering from knee pain after his crash on the opening day.

You can read our preview of stage 6 here and follow our live coverage of the stage at 14.25 CET on CyclingQuotes.com/live.