Sam Bennett and Ryan Mullen have seen their Bora-hansgrohe team cut back to just four riders at Paris-Nice as illness and crashes have taken their toll. Both Irish riders have put their shoulders to the wheel as the team tries to help Aleksandr Vlasov in his efforts to make the final podium.
The team's Austrian Felix Großschartner was the first to fall by the wayside when he failed to finish the opening stage due to a crash. Maximilian Schachmann did not start yesterday's stage 4 TT and Nils Politt withdrew today; both due to illness.
“After Nils Politt had to abandon the race we unfortunately have only four riders left here," said Bora-hansgrohe directeur Torsten Schmidt. "But today those four riders did a great job supporting our leader Aleksandr Vlasov.
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"Aleks showed another strong race today and was able to move up to 5th in the GC. We’re really happy about this - three more stages to go and we’re fully motivated!"
The flu has swept through the peloton in France, with over 40 riders having abandoned since the race started on Sunday; some 21 of those failing to start today's stage.
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So far Mullen and Bennett are still in the running and placed 96th and 108th today, both in a group at 24:22, on the 188.8km stage into Saint-Sauveur-de-Montagut. The race was won by Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) after he escaped in the main breakaway and attacked it solo with 40km to go, using the Col de la Mure as his launch pad.
He took an emotional victory, his first in a World Tour race, some 1:58 ahead of Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels-KTM) and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), who were the next strongest of the surviving breakaway men.
Jumbo Visma's race leader, and yesterday's stage winner, Wout van Aert was dropped today on the Col de la Mure and finished in the same group as Bennett and Mullen. Surprisingly, Primož Roglič was the only Jumbo Visma rider to finish in the remains of the peloton; numbering just over 20 riders and trailing in 5:43 behind the stage winner.
While there were attacks from that group - including a strong move by Daniel Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) in the finale and Roglič was isolated, the Slovenian did enough to take the race leader.
With three hard stages remaining over hilly terrain, Roglič is in the driving seat, with 39 seconds over 2nd placed Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco). Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies), who tried to break clear in the finale today, is 3rd at 41 seconds.
