Nacer Bouhanni takes his revenge: winner of the sprint for the Paris-Nice stage win in Romans-sur-Isère

Thursday 10 March 2016 at 18h26

A bit as usual in this Paris-Nice 2016, we saw a 4 men breakaway being formed early in the stage and staying in front for several tens of kilometers. There was a bit more animation in this stage though than in the previous days and another breakaway stayed in front until the last kilometer. However, in the end the stage ended in a sprint and that's where Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis, solutions crédits) took revenge on the tumultuous sprint two days ago, by winning the sprint with one bike length ahead on Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) this time.

The summary of the 4th stage of Paris-Nice 2016: Juliénas > Romans-sur-Isère

The weather conditions were completely different this morning then yesterday when the stage was stopped after about one hundred kilometers in the race (the organisor of the race has already announced today that the 2017 edition of Paris-Nice will have a stage finish on the Mont Brouilly where yesterday's stage was supposed to finish!). The snow was turned into a shining sun at the signature control at the start in Juliénas, in the middle of the wineyards.

Talking of the signature control, there were quite some riders which disobeyed it today since 28 riders didn't come to sign in. At the start of the stage there was thus quite an original announcement on Radio Tour. Indeed, not knowing whether these riders started in the race, their names were all mentioned on Radio Tour and their directeurs sportifs were asked to come down to the car of the jury president to indicate whether their riders started the race or not. Indeed, that's one of the main uses of the signatures, to know whether there are any non starters in the race or not. In addition to the reminder of the importance of the signature on Radio Tour for the corresponding teams, these riders will thus most probably also have to pay a fine.

Right from the start there have been several breakaway attempts but we had to wait until kilometer 6 to see Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie), Matt Brammeier (Dimension Data), Florian Vachon (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Evaldas Siskevicius (Delko Marseille Provence-KTM) really get away and form the breakaway of the day in the wineyards.

On top of the first climb of the day, the Col de Brouilly (close to the place where yesterday's stage was supposed to finish), the gap of these 4 leading riders on the peloton was 4'40" when Evaldas Siskevicius took the 3 points for the King of the mountains classification. The gap then stabilised around 3 minutes and on top of the Côte de Givors the rider from the Delko Marseille team again took the points for the polka dot jersey, thus taking the virtual lead in the King of the mountains classification .

After this second climb the peloton started to seriously gain some terrain on the breakaway and at 60 kilometers from the finish their gap was down to 1'30" and when they started the next climb, the Côte de Saint-Uze, they only had 40 seconds left.

In this climb, Thomas Voeckler decided to go on alone, closely followed by Siskevicius. It was in this order that the two riders arrived on top of the climb, just before the Lithuanian rider was taken back by the peloton. Mission accomplished however for the Delko Marseille rider because he was sure to wear the polka dot jersey tonight!

Thomas Voeckler was alone in front when a chasing group got away from the peloton, initially with 8 riders but in the end only with Sylvain Chavanel (Thomas Voeckler's team mate), Delio Fernandez (Siskevicius' team mate) and Sep Vanmarcke (Team Lotto NL-Jumbo). These three chasing riders joined Voeckler at 22 kilometers from the finish, with a 25 seconds gap on the peloton but rapidly Voeckler had to pay for his efforts in today's breakaway and the remaining trio continued without him.

At 2 kilometers from the finish this leading trio was still ahead, with an 11 seconds gap, but the peloton was quite threatening behind themn, especially with the Katusha and Cofidis teams working to get back on the breakaway. At 500 meters from the finish, the adventure came to an end for them and a bunch sprint was about to decide for the stage win. Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) was the first to start the sprint but Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis, solutions crédits) managed to get around him on the left and won the stage with one bike length ahead at the finish in Romans-sur-Isère.

After the finish, Nacer Bouhanni came back on the conditions in which the tumultuous sprint took place two days ago and in which he was declassified: Christophe Laporte took me to a perfect position in the last turn. I then made the mistake not to go directly to the side of the road and that's where Michael Matthews tried to get through a small gap. I got a lot of critics because of the fact that I was with my body leaning on him in the sprint but that was due to the fact that he touched my arm, which destabilised me. We almost both fell ... Today I thus only had one thing in mind: the victory!

The classifications of Paris-Nice 2016 after the 4th stage

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The classification of the 4th stage: Juliénas > Romans-sur-Isère

Here's the top 10 of this 4th stage of Paris-Nice 2016:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis, solutions crédits) - 4h42'29"
2/ Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo)
3/ André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal)
4/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha)
5/ Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE)
6/ Ben Swift (Team Sky)
7/ Nikolas Maes (Etixx-QuickStep)
8/ Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal)
9/ Youcef Reguigui (Dimension Data)
10/ Roy Curvers (Team Giant-Alpecin)

General classification

In the general classification, Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) keeps the lead, thanks to his 5th place in toay's sprint.

The yellow jersey of the race announced Alberto Contador, Richie Porte, Geraint Thomas and Tom Dumoulin as his main competitors but he also sees himself as a potential candidate for the overall victory. He also indicated that he had chosen tomorrow's stage before the start of Paris-Nice 2016, hoping he would get over the climb towards the Chalet Reynard (on the way to the Mont Ventoux which they'll not reach) without any trouble.

Here's the top 5 of the general classifications:

1/ Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 14h24'15"
2/ Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant-Alpecin) - +0'14"
3/ Patrick Bevin (Cannondale Pro Cycling Team) - +0'19"
4/ Jon Izaguirre (Movistar Team)
5/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky)

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Points classification

In the points classification, Michael Matthews is still leading as well, but the green jersey will be worn by Nacer Bouhanni tomorrow (Arnaud Démare (FDJ) abandoned the race in today's stage with knee pain).

1/ Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 44 points
2/ Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis, solutions crédits) - 33 points
3/ Ben Swift (Team Sky) - 22 points
4/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha) - 14 points
5/ André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) - 13 points

King of the mountains classification

By arriving on top first on the difficult climbs of the day (except for the last one), Evaldas Siskevicius collected enough points to put on the polka dot jersey tonight!

1/ Evaldas Siskevicius (Delko Marseille Provence-KTM) - 15 points
2/ Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie) - 9 points
3/ Jon Izaguirre (Movistar Team) - 4 points
4/ David de la Cruz (Etixx-QuickStep) - 4 points
5/ Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) - 4 points

Video summary of the 4th stage of Paris-Nice 2016

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice | Paris-Nice 2016