Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) and Luke Plapp (Team Jayco AlUla) may have been up the road taking the stage win and yellow jersey, respectively, on stage 4 at Paris-Nice today but all eyes were on the general classification men behind them.
However, while the combination of an uphill finish, with bonus seconds on offer, seemed made for Primož Roglič (Bora-hansgrohe), he was sluggish when his rivals sprinted for the line.
Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Remco Evenpoel (Soudal QuickStep) surged forward from what little remained of the bunch, with Skjelmose just pipping the Belgian for 3rd place and the four bonus seconds on offer, though Roglič was a long way back.
He finished lengths behind them, losing two seconds at the finish - and a total of six to Skjelmose on the day. And while that time loss is small, Roglič's muted finish today may be a sign all is not well.
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? Une belle bagarre pour le @MaillotJauneLCL sur les pentes du Mont Brouily ! ?
⏪ Revivez le dernier kilomètre de l’étape 4. ?? A fierce battle for the yellow jersey on the slopes of Mont Brouily! ?
⏪Relive the last kilometre of stage 4. ?#ParisNice pic.twitter.com/wk8Owo0LN1— Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) March 6, 2024
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Buitrago won the the day atop the Mont Brouilly climb, after distancing Plapp on the ascent after that duo broke clear - Plapp first and Buitrago getting across to him - with just over 20km remaining on the stage.
Though they had just 40 seconds with 4km to go, as they neared the base of the final climb, the Colombian rider was very strong. He dropped Plapp and went on to take a classy victory, some 10 seconds up on the Australian, who kept his shape well and went into yellow.
Then came Skjelmose and Evenepoel, 3rd and 4th at 37 seconds. They were two seconds up on a small group that included, in finishing order, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Roglič and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike).
Today's yellow jersey, Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), was 10th at 46 seconds and so lost the race lead to Plapp. He is now top of the GC, some 13 seconds up on Buitrago, with McNulty 3rd at 27 seconds.
Then comes three of the GC men; João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) 4th at 29 seconds, Evenepoel 5th at 30 seconds and Bernal 6th at 40 seconds. Roglič, after a poor TTT effort on stage 3 by his Bora-hansgrohe team, is way down the standings; in 15th at 1:10.
However, he may yet come good on this race and the finish of Saturday's stage - on the cat 1 Auron - coupled with a testing final day of racing into Nice on Sunday will provide him with chances if he has the legs.
The only Irish rider in the race, Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) was 113th today at 21:29. However, Bennett and the other sprinters might get a chance into Sisteron tomorrow if they can negotiate some small climbs along the way.
