Pedersen dominates the echelons
March 14 th 2025 - 16:13
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) powered to victory in Berre-l’Étang, after an eventful stage 6 of Paris-Nice 2025 marked by echelons. The Danish star was the fastest in the 17-man group that emerged after Visma-Lease a Bike turned the race upside down in the last 65 kilometres. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) made the first echelon alongside Matteo Jorgenson, but Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) was caught behind (+1’54’’). As for Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), he lost almost 10 minutes. The road will rise again this week-end, first of all with the summit finish in Auron.
After an eventful stage 5 marked by Lenny Martinez’s first World Tour success and Jonas Vingegaard’s crash, the Danish climber withdrew from Paris-Nice 2025, leaving 138 riders to head out to Berre-l’Étang in a flat and windy stage.
There are three cat-3 climbs on the day, inspiring Thomas Gachignard (Total Energies) to attack as soon as the flag drops. Second in the KOM standings with 18 points - 2 less than Joao Almeida - the Frenchman is quickly joined by a countryman, Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ). Then, Jakub Otruba (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) bridges the gap to them at km 18, making it a 3-man breakaway.
Nervousness in the bunch
Tim Merlier’s Soudal Quick-Step drive the bunch. Pushed by a tailwind, the riders are flying, and the gap hits a maximum of 3’05’’ at km 60. However, the peloton is wary of potential echelons as the race heads east on some sections of the second half of the course.
Gachignard goes first atop the Côte de Pouzilhac (km 88.3) and then drops back to the bunch, trailing by 1’20’’ halfway through the 209.8-km stage.
After this first warning, the situation settles, and the gap increases again: 2’35’’, as Cavagna goes solo at the front with 87 km to go. The French powerhouse pushes his advantage back up to 3’ at the bottom of the Côte-des-Baux-de-Provence.
Major echelons
Visma-Lease a Bike accelerate on the following downhill and open major splits in the peloton. Matteo Jorgenson is at the front with his five teammates, and only three rivals manage to follow. After 9 kilometers of battle, eight more riders join to form a 17-man group: Jorgenson, Affini, Campenaerts, Hagenes, Lemmen, Zingle, Schachmann, Skjelmose, Pedersen, Lipowitz, Sobrero, Arensman, Foss, Jungels, Sheffield, Tarling, and Watson.
They work well together, catch up to Cavagna with 42 kilometers to go, and open significant gaps to their rivals en route to Berre-l’Étang, where Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) shows his power to take his third stage win in Paris-Nice. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) loses 1’54’’ and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) finishes 7 minutes further behind.
