Boldness pays off for Plapp and Buitrago
March 6 th 2024 - 16:43
Lucas Plapp (Jayco AlUla) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) boldly outwitted the favourites to share the laurels at the top of Mont Brouilly on Wednesday, the Colombian winning the 4th stage of Paris-Nice while the Australian champion, second in the stage, took over the overall leader’s yellow and white jersey. Plapp was the first to launch the decisive move in the 1st category Col du Fut d’Avenas and he was later joined by Buitrago, already noted for his two stage wins in the Giro d’Italia. The pair worked perfectly together while the favourites were playing a waiting game behind them. Matthias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick-Step) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) surged too late to becontent with collecting a few bonus seconds on the finish line. France’s Mathieu Burgaudeau was part of the four-man break which allowed him to strengthen his polka-dot jersey on the several climbs of the day.
Four-man break
The real start was given at midday to 150 riders. Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny), Oliver Naesen (Decathlon-Ag2R) and Michael Schwarzmann (Israel-Premier Tech) did not start. After several attempts, which saw the KOM contenders try their luck in turn, Christian Scaroni managed to take a short lead to tackle the 2nd category Cote de Mont Saint-Vincent in the lead with the peloton on his heels. In the descent, the Italian was joined by polka-dot jersey holder Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies), Swiss Stefan Bissegger (EF-Easypost) and Belgian Jasper de Buyst (Lotto Dstny). The four rapidly increased their lead, which settled at 3:30 at kilometre 68.
Burgaudeau picks points
In the first climb, several sprinters were dropped, including three times stage winner Michael Matthews, who finally called it quits. When they reached the second climb of the day, Col de Boubon, the four escapees retained a 2:50 lead over the pack. Burgaudeau strengthened his KOM lead by picking five points and the Frenchman did the same on Cote de Vauxrenard at kilometre 104.1 as the race was going through some of the most famous vineyards of Beaujolais (Julienas, Fleurie, Morgon).
Scaroni on his own
At the foot of Col de Durbize (Km 125), the peloton, led by UAE Team Emirates and Ineos Grenadiers riders, was back within a minute of the escapees. As a result, Scaroni and Burgaudeau broke clear of their breakaway companions. The Italian went on his own one kilometre from the summit as Bora-Hansgrohe riders raised the tempo in the bunch. Burgaudeau brought his KOM tally to 28 points before being reined in by the pack. Before the first ascent of Mont Brouilly, Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), the 2018 Paris-Nice winner, threw the towel.
Bonus seconds for Evenepoel
Scaroni managed to reach the top in the lead with a 20-seconds lead over the bunch, to finally collect 21 KOM points thanks to his solo effort. He was caught in the descent (Km 145) as the peloton split in several groups. The intermediate sprint of the day saw Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic battle it out, the Belgian champion taking the upper-hand to collect six seconds while the Slovenian picked four, Laurence Pithie finishing third to add four points to his green jersey.
Plapp and Buitrago lead the way
In the 1st category Col du Fut d’Avenas, Lucas Plapp (Jayco AlUla) went on his own as white-jersey holder Finn Fisher-Black (UAE) was losing ground. He was joined near the top by Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain), who reached the summit ahead of him. The two went on to lead the pack by 20 seconds in the descent as David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon-Ag2R) crashed and lost touch. Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) was also dropped as his brother Gorka had given up. Only 22 riders were left in contention behind the two escapees with 15 km left to go.
Buitrago goes all the way
Jay Vine (UAE) took charge of the chase until 10 km to go but the gap increased when nobody pulled with him and the two escapees tackled the second ascent of Mont Brouilly with a 40 seconds lead over the chase. The favourites – Evenepoel, Roglic, Brandon McNulty, Egan Bernal, Skjelmose – played hide and seek and waited for the final 600 metres to attack. By then, Buitrago had already crossed the line and raised his arms with a 11-seconds lead over Plapp.
