Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) soloed to back-to-back stage wins at Paris-Nice and extended his general classification lead on stage five.
The Dane attacked with 21km to go en route to Colombier-le-Vieux, kicking away from the peloton on a 13% gradient as he approached the summit of the second of three finishing climbs.
His victory photo, taken only a few hundred kilometres south of his win on Wednesday, seemed a world away. This time there were no grey skies, freezing rain or faux pas bib tight straps over his jersey, but rather a sun-dappled scene, lighting up his yellow leader’s jersey.
Having started the day with a GC advantage of 52 seconds, Vingegaard now leads the race by 3:22 ahead of Dani Martínez (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe).
"It's been an amazing day for me and for the team," Vingegaard said afterwards.
"We wanted to win and take as much time as possible. Now I took a good amount of time. Once again, I want to thank my team-mates a lot for today. They deserve the champagne tonight."
As the two-time Tour de France winner approached the finish line, he leant forward and kissed his handlebars, where he had placed a sticker of his wife and two children.
He then celebrated by stretching his arms out wide, toasting his second victory in as many days – an impressive haul for a rider who only decided to race Paris-Nice after a crash forced him to skip the UAE Tour.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the line, Vingegaard's team-mate Victor Campenaerts said the Dane is in "extremely good shape".
"Killer Jonas destroyed everybody," Campenaerts smiled. "He’s been very relaxed from December training camp and feeling very ready for it. Clearly when we came to Paris-Nice, already beforehand, [the goal] wasn’t to do race miles or whatever. It was to come here and smash it."
The Belgian helped set up Vingegaard's winning attack on stage five. After spending the day embedded in the breakaway, Campenaerts dropped back into the peloton and towed Vingegaard up to speed, catapulting him up the double-figure slope, before grinding to a near halt himself.
The race leader then ploughed alone through the hills of the Ardèche. By the time he reached the final climb, his advantage stood at around 40 seconds, which he doubled over the summit to hold off the chasing Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) by 2:02.
Though he now leads by a comfortable three-minute cushion, Vingegaard assured that the race is "not over".
"There are still three stages left, where a lot of things can happen," he said. "We just have to keep the focus until Nice."
Friday's sixth stage will take the peloton 179.2km from Barbentane to Apt, ahead of the weekend's finale.
Results
Paris-Nice, stage five: Cormoranche-sur-Saône > Colombier-le-Vieux (206km)
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 4:29:01
2. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Fra) Soudal Quick-Step, +2:20
3. Harold Tejada (Col) XDS Astana, +2:20
4. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious
5. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Cofidis
6. Dani Martínez (Col) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe
7. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Ineos Grenadiers
8. Georg Steinhauser (Ger) EF Education-EasyPost
9. Mathys Rondel (Fra) Tudor Pro Cycling
10. Marc Soler (Esp) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, all at same time
General classification after stage five
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 17:22:06
2. Dani Martínez (Col) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +3:22
3. Georg Steinhauser (Ger) EF Education-EasyPost, +5:50
4. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Ineos Grenadiers, +6:09
5. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious, +7:37
6. Marc Soler (Spa) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +8:15
7. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Cofidis, +9:02
8. Mathys Rondel (Fra) Tudor Pro Cycling, +10:06
9. Alex Baudin (Fra) EF Education-EasyPost, +10:16
10. Oscar Onley (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, +11:23
