Colombian Santiago Buitrago on Wednesday won the first mountain stage of Paris-Nice after an exhilarating finish in the Beaujolais wine-growing region that went down to the final kilometer.
The 183km fourth stage from Chalon-sur-Saone to Mont Brouilly, France, featured six category 2 climbs and a category 1 in the shape of the 7.3 percent Col du Fut d’Avenas, 20km before the finish line.
“I really did not expect this... To win a World Tour race here in France is exceptional for me,” Buitrago said. “I had good legs and a good breakaway companion with [Luke] Plapp, who helped me into the finale. I’m also well placed in the GC [general classification], so it’s great.”
Photo: AFP
Going pedal to pedal with Plapp of Team Jayco AlUla, Team Bahrain’s Buitrago claimed the imposing 3km final ascent of Mont Brouilly to take his first ever Paris-Nice stage victory.
Mathieu Burgaudeau and Christian Scaroni broke away from the leading pack on the ascent of Col de Durbize, with just over 50km left to race, before the Italian showed the Frenchman a clean set of wheels to streak out on his own as the summit approached.
Scaroni sat out just in front until the stage’s daunting Col du Fut d’Avenas climb at the 161km mark, where Buitrago and Plapp attacked to take the lead.
The pair battled it out neck-and-neck over the stage’s final 20km until the Colombian found a final burst on the last ascent to leave his Australian competitor behind and claim the win.
Despite coming second, Plapp claimed the overall leader’s jersey from Brandon McNulty, who dropped to third just behind stage-winner Buitrago.
Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step, one of the favorites to win the race, attacked twice in the final kilometer to finish fourth in the stage and move up to fifth in the general classification.
Evenepoel went head-to-head with rival Primoz Roglic in the stage’s intermediate sprint and the Belgian emerged victorious, picking up six seconds to the Slovenian’s four.
Egan Bernal of Ineos Grenadiers and Bora–Hansgrohe’s Roglic finished fifth and seventh respectively on the day.
Former Tour de France and Giro d’Italia winner Bernal is sixth overall, 40 seconds behind Plapp, with Roglic another 30 seconds back in 15th place.
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