2020 Paris-Nice Stage 6 Results & Recap
Stage 6 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
Benoot wins stage 6
Tiesj Benoot took stage 6 by storm today, winning in Apt after a smart solo move in the last 15 kilometres. The Belgian winner of 2018 Strade Bianche crossed the line 22 seconds ahead of his Sunweb teammate, Michael Matthews. Sergio Higuita (EF Education First) took third place and displayed the form needed for tomorrow’s queen stage.
“With the legs I had, it’s a shame the race does not go to Nice but I’m happy all the same as I could win this stage,” Benoot said. “Tomorrow I hope to be able to go on like this. I like the days when you have to push all day and it was a day like this. We had a great preparation for the classics and it’s a shame we cannot ride them. The team has been good all week and all my team-mates played a part in the victory today. It’s really good to be able to win a second stage after the one Soren won in the time trial. It’s deserved I think. I don’t know what to expect tomorrow. We’ll see in the morning. First, I will enjoy this.”
Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) had a stressful finale, crashing around a bend and losing some time, but he still retained his yellow jersey. He is sitting 36 seconds ahead of Benoot and 1:01 seconds over Higuita and Felix Grosschartner (Bora Hansgrohe).
“The race was full on and I did not see the bend,” Schachmann said about crashing in the final kilometre. “It was really crazy. I had a little gap, I came back a bit too fast and I made a mistake. It’s definitely not finished but I feel good. Tomorrow we’ll probably ride a bit different.”
The dynamic fluctuated throught the 166km day, due to undulating terrain and word the race organizers were shortening the race by one stage.
Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels), Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ), Anthony Perez (Cofidis) and Niccolo Bonifazio (Total Direct Energie) took off, but never got that much time because of Quickstep’s tight reigns on the peloton.
Bonifazio was dropped first on the Col de Murs that saw Edet take max points.
The climb rearrange the breakaway, which was now comprised of Edet, Perez, Kung, Winner Anacona (Arkea-Samsic), Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Alexis Gougeard and Romain Bardet (both Ag2R).
Edet was on the hunt for the KOM jersey, and finished first on the next few climbs, successfully taking the polka dot jersey from Hivert.
On the final climb, the breakaway started to dwindle. Soren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) took advantage of the changing scenario and tore out of the peloton bridging across to Edet and Bardet with 33 km to go. Andersen dispatched the two French riders and went ahead solo. The Dane was soon met by his teammate, Benoot.
Andersen stayed with Benoot as long as he could, but his earlier efforts took their toll and Benoot kept going until the end, taking Sunweb’s second win of the race. \n
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