After the first mountain stage in Paris-Nice yesterday, in which the roles were reversed and Vingegaard took over the leader's jersey from Jorgenson after his second place, another day full of climbs was on the program for the yellow-and-black brigade of Team Visma | Lease a Bike. With five categorized climbs in the final 50 kilometers, it promised to be a sensational finale. Just before that, Vingegaard was involved in a crash. The Dane quickly got back on his bike, but his hand was hurt.

On the flanks of the steep Côte d'Arzay and Côte de Notre-Dame-de-Sciez, Vingegaard was led to the front by good work from teammates Axel Zingle and Victor Campenaerts in the closing kilometers, but pain in his hand hindered him. Number two in the classification Jorgenson led a tight pace at the front in the final hundreds of meters, but was passef by later stage winner Martinez. Vingegaard could not keep up with the acceleration of the favourites at the front and eventually came in at 26 seconds from Martinez. That means Jorgenson will start tomorrow as the new leader of the general classification, followed by Vingegaard. 

“Of course, I'm happy with the yellow leader's jersey, but I'm standing here with mixed feelings”, Jorgenson said immediately after the finish. “It's not nice that Jonas crashed. When he returned to the peloton he told me to race for myself today. That's what I did then. As a team we tried to make the best of it. It’s a shame I couldn't win the stage.”

Nevertheless, the American is happy with his level in Paris-Nice, the stage race he won last year. “I felt very good again today. As a team, we're still doing well in the general classification. I'm very happy with that with the decisive weekend ahead of us. We are going to do everything we can to defend the yellow jersey.” Tomorrow there is a relatively easy stage on the program for the riders of Team Visma | Lease a Bike, followed by two tough stages in the final weekend.