Home > News

Duchesne escapes, Lutsenko wins Stage 5 of Paris-Nice

The Direct Energie rider put himself firmly in the King of the Mountain race by scoring points on five categorized climbs as part of the day's breakaway.

Canadian Antoine Duchesne had an all-day adventure at the head of Friday’s fifth stage of Paris-Nice. The Direct Energie rider put himself firmly in the King of the Mountain race by scoring points on five categorized climbs as part of the day’s breakaway. A rider who overtook him late in stage, Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan/Astana), took the flowers while Michael Matthews (Australia/Orica-GreenEdge) retained his GC lead.

The stage started in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, where Duchesne lives. He was sure to get into the octet of fugitives that lit out for glory. Not only was “Tony the Tiger” third on the first climb, the Cat. 3 Col de Madelaine, but he was also third on the first half of Mont Ventoux, ascending as high as Chalet Reynard soon after the trees thin out.

By that time the breakaway was reduced and the sprinters were off the back in the main peloton. After lunch and a long descent, the break was a quintet and held a 5:00 gap heading towards the first of three consecutive Cat. 2’s. Jose Herrada (Spain/Movistar), who took the King of the Mountains lead on the Chalet Reynard climb, was second there, while Duchesne was third once more.

There were still 63-km of the 198-km route to go. Then came in interesting moment when Orica-GreenEdge drove the pelotons of both Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy.

Just before the penultimate climb of Côte de la Roque-d’Anthéron (4.2-km of 5.5%), and with Tinkoff reducing the gap, Duchesne bolted on his breakmates. Back in the peloton, a couple of attacks couldn’t shake Matthews. Duchesne reached the summit first and then bombed down into the valley before the last climb, the Col de Séze.

With the rest of his breakmates absorbed, Duchesne beat on alone and crested with a 30-second lead and 28-km to go. Nearly crashing on the descent, Antoine survived, found a friend in Lutsenko with 18-km and then dropped away from the 3-km later. Duchesne soon returned to the pack.

Lutsenko hung on tenaciously to take the victory. Behind him, the peloton was nervous. The Kazakh nudged himself into second place on GC as Matthews placed third, picking up bonus seconds.

Saturday the race finally reaches the sun in Nice to start the queen stage, with five Cat. 2 climbs and two Cat. 1’s, including the summit finish on La Madone d’Utelle.


2016 Paris-Nice Stage 5

1) Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan/Astana) 5:00:26
2) Alexander Kristoff (Norway/Katusha) +0:21
3) Michael Matthews (Australia/Orica-GreenEdge) s.t.
84) Antoine Duchesne (Canada/Direct Energie) +0:50

2016 Paris-Nice GC

1) Michael Matthews (Australia/Orica-GreenEdge) 19:24:58
2) Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan/Astana) +0:06
3) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Giant-Alpecin) +0:18
50) Antoine Duchesne (Canada/Direct Energie) +1:52