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Here’s a first shot of our breakaway duo.
They’re straight onto the next climb, the Côte de l’Aubépin, another cat-2 test (although another one you sense would be cat-3 in the Tour de France). It’s 4.9km at 5.1%.
Gregaard is first to the top of the climb, adding five points to his mountains tally. Dujardin didn’t have a single point before today.
The pair quickly open 90 seconds as they hit the day’s first climb, the category-2 Côte de Coise (1.5km at 8.6%).
Gregaard is joined by Sandy Dujardin (TotalEnergies) and it looks like those two riders are away.
Jonas Gregaard attacks, and that’s no surprise. The Uno-X rider has been in the breakaway most days and has built up a big lead in the mountains classification, which he’s hoping to buttress today.
We’re off!
The riders reach KM0 and the flag is promptly waved to get us underway.
Today’s stage features some early hills, then 110km of pan-flat, then a couple more hills. The last one tops out 30km from the line, and isn’t overly difficult, meaning most sprinters will fancy their chances today.
The riders are on their way towards kilometre-zero.
And to help you digest it all, can I point you in the way of Barry Ryan’s typically perceptive analysis of the balance of power between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard.
Before we get going, now’s the time to catch up on yesterday’s action, and there was plenty of it.
Report from stage 4, plus all the latest standings, are right here.
The riders have gathered on on the start line and we’ll be underway in a few minutes. We have around 15 minutes in a neutral zone before the stage proper kicks off. Blue skies, light cloud, and not much wind – we’re getting closer to the sun.
Hello and welcome along to our live coverage of Paris-Nice. Yesterday’s stage saw a dramatic victory for Tadej Pogačar and humbling for Jonas Vingegaard, setting things up for the final weekend on the French Riviera. But first we’ve got to get there, and this, the longest stage of the race, takes us 212.5km due south to Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, where the most likely eventuality is a bunch sprint.
