2020 Paris-Nice Stage 5 Results & Recap
Stage 5 of the 2020 Paris-Nice is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Bonifacio wins stage 5
Niccolo Bonifazio (Direct Energie) claimed an emphatic win in la Cote Saint-Andre after outsprinting Ivan Garcia Cortina (Bahrain-McLaren) and Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) in a furious charge to the line.
“For the team, it was an important day,” Bonifazio said. “Paris-Nice is an important objective in the season and I worked very hard in the winter. I only rode eight races and I was missing a little beat of racing pace in the first stages here but today I felt very well and I looked for a good positioning. I started my sprint with 100 m to go and I won. Thanks for the team and for everyone. It’s a small gift for my family and all the Italians who are confined to their homes.”
Maximilian Schachmann came home safely to retain his yellow jersey yet another day. After the longest stage of Paris-Nice at 227km, the overall didn’t shift and the German champion is still 58 seconds ahead of Soren Kragh Anderson (Team Sunweb) and a minute and 1 second ahead of his teammate, Felix Großschartner (BOH).
“We expected an easier day but it was a really hard day, especially the last 70 or 60 km because the breakaway was so strong and we had to work hard to catch them,” Schachmann said. “It was hard for everybody. I presume Sergio (Higuita) from EF Pro Cycling is still my main competitor because he’s an excellent climber and he’s the closest at the moment. He should be my main competitor in the next days and the one I need to keep an eye on. There are a few other good climbers but they are further away so I’m going to focus on him.”
The break of the day established itself around five kilometres into the stage, when Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2R), Jan Tratnik (Bahrain-McLaren) and Anthony Turgis (Direct Energie) took off down the road. For the majority of the race, they maintained a seven minute gap that only began to decrease in the last 30km when the peloton set up their sprinters for a mass charge to the line.
The breakaway was caught with seven kilometres to go, save for Tratnik, so took a chance on a solo move that almost materialized into a success. Unfortunately, the cards weren’t in the Slovenian’s favor, and he was caught just metres before the finish. \n
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