Paris-Nice was thrown into chaos and the overall turned upside down on Wednesday, as a late high-speed mass crash forced GC leader Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) and other top riders to abandon injured, whilst Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) captured the victory and the yellow jersey in the race’s first summit finish overall.
On the last kilometre of the category 1 ascent to Uchon, Vingegaard blasted away from the tiny front group of three who had managed to avoid the major crash that left Ayuso out of the race, finishing nearly a minute ahead of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader Dani Martínez, his teammate Tim Van Dijke claimed third.
On a bitterly cold, rainy day through the hills of central France where for many riders the only objective came down to just being able to finish, the effects of an early echelon of 40 riders containing Ayuso, Vingegaard and Martínez already saw the race shattered into pieces long before the final climbs and the mass crash.
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Ineos Grenadiers co-leader Kévin Vauquelin, previously third overall, was amongst those dropped early, while teammate Oscar Onley suffered after an earlier fall and then a mechanical and finished more than three minutes down.
However, it was the big pile-up at 55 kilometres on a sweeping descent that upended the race the most, seeing Ayuso fall heavily and abandon, whilst other top contenders badly affected included Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who abandoned, and Spanish National Iván Romeo (Movistar).
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