10 March 2022

Paris-Nice (stage 5) : Laurent Pichon 5th

Laurent Pichon took 5th place in the 5th stage of Paris-Nice (Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert – Saint Sauveur de Montagut). Nairo Quintana is now 9th in the general classification.
Photos Fred Machabert

“The breakaway started quite, quite early. It was a good battle before coming out. We wanted to be a relay for Nairo in the last climb before the finish. We took 7 minutes, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that. I hung in there all day. At 35 years old, I should not despair, I signed my best place in a UCI WorldTour race! I didn’t need to do much to move up with the group for second place. We saw today that Nairo is in great shape, we are in good spirits, we are determined and we want to move forward over the last three days.”

Yvon Ledanois

YVON LEDANOIS: “I’m happy to see that my guys respected the instructions to the letter. We knew that a stage like today was going to be important for the overall classification. It was important to have a rider at the front for our leader. I am happy to see Laurent Pichon with the best. He is our road captain here, I am very happy to see him in the top five. Laurent, but also the whole group will give 300% on the road in the last three stages.”