A cascade of 18 retirements reduced the Paris-Nice peloton this Thursday morning, before the start of the 5th stage linking the Loire to the Ardèche. Among the riders who have given up continuing the race are the Belgian Amaury Capiot (Arkéa-Samsic), the Frenchman Clément Champoussin (AG2R Citroën), the Italian Matteo Trentin (UAE) and the Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen (BikeExchange) and the Swiss Stefan Bissegger (EF Education). “It’s a kind of flu virus circulating in the peloton”, declared Julien Jurdie, the sports director of the Champoussin team, already weakened by the abandonment, the day before, of its Australian leader Ben O’Connor for an identical reason.
More than 126 runners
German Nils Politt (Bora), Swiss Gino Mäder (Bahrain), Belgian Yves Lampaert and Czech Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step), American Dylan Vermaercke (DSM), Belgian Jens Keukeleire and American Neilson Powless (EF Education), Norwegian Carl Frederik Hagen, Canadian James Piccoli and Belgian Tom Van Asbroeck (Israel PT), Belgian Jonas Rickaert, Italian Kristian Sbaragli and Australian Jay Vine (Alpecin) are the other runners to have left the race.
The peloton, which left Yvelines on Sunday with 154 riders, has only 126 units left.
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