2021 Paris-Nice Stage 4 Results & Recap
Stage 4 of the 2021 Paris-Nice is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Roglič takes reigns at Paris Nice\nBy Clara Beard
One acceleration from Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and it was all over for the rest of the Paris Nice peloton. The Slovenian waited until the seventh and final KOM climb of the day to open up a gap on his rivals, and never looked back. Roglic now leads the race to the sun by 35 seconds ahead of defending champion Maximilian Schachmann (Bora - Hansgrohe). American Brandon McNulty (UAE) is third, 37 seconds behind.
"I’m definitely happy about the result," Roglic said. "Yesterday was a nice one also. I proved to myself that we were working good. I’m super happy we have two wins for the team today. It was a hard day but it was a stage for me definitely. It was beautiful that I had the legs to finish it off. It’s a long way to Nice but we deserve it, we have a strong team and we are optimistic going into the next stages. We’ll see what the result in Nice will be."
Under chilly, sunny conditions, the race kicked off at kilometre 3, when Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo) instigated the break of the day. He was followed by Anthony Perez (Cofidis), KOM leader Fabien Doubey (Total Direct Energie), Jose Rojas (Movistar), Oliver Naesen (Ag2R-Citroen) and Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin-Fenix). The peloton was content to let that composition go and by the time they reached the first climb of the day, the Cote des Chevres, they had a comfortable gap of 5'30".
With the amount of KOMs on offer today (seven in total), there were plenty of opportunities to take the KOM lead. Perez took full advantage of Doubey's tired legs to pocket enough points to claim polka dots by the end of the stage and now leads that competition by six points ahead of Bernard.
"I thought during the stage about what happened to me in the Tour de France when I crashed as I was leading the KOM rankings," Perez said. "I told myself that this time I shouldn’t crash halfway through. So it’s a nice symbol. In the front, we were not doing more effort than in the peloton. I found myself in the break and I asked if I could go for the jersey. I was told to do it and I went for it. But now I have work to do for Guillaume (Martin) so I don’t know if I will be in a position to defend it."
The relentless climbs took their toll, and the peloton caught the original breakaway stragglers within 10km to go - the last rider to be caught was Bernard. From there, Roglic made his move on final ascent to Chiroubles, leaving other potential GC contenders in his wake. \n
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