You join us as we await the beginning of stage five, a long slog of about 200km through hilly terrain t🔯hat will end with a steep wall of Côte de Notre-Dame-de-Sciez.

The final climb to the finish lasts 1.7km, and averages a brutal 10.8%. It&rsquꦍo;s a ‘wall’ in a similar vein to the Mur de Huy, and will require strong ❀climbing legs, a quick punch, and good timing so as not to fade before the top.

There was a time when a climb like this had Julian Alaphilippe’s name written all over it, but the Frenchman isn’t quite the force he once was, and hasn’t won a race since last July. Nevertheless, he’s shown some signs of form, and must still be🐷 counted among the candidates for the stage win.

He and 🌌the rest of the bunch have begun riding, and are passing through the neutral𓆏ised section.

On such a hilly route, and with so many riders now out of GC coꦜntention, you sense this could be a day for the breakaway to succeed. We can therefore expect a real battle to get up the road once the flag is waved.

Most of the climbing is d꧟one during the second half of the stage, however. Though they will climb an uncategorised rise from the start, and take on the category three Côte de Saint-Polgues shortly after, the majority of the opening 20km are downhill, while the second of the day’s s𝕴even official climbs isn’t tackled until over halfway into the stage.

197KM TO GO

And they're off!

Once again it’s very cold out, just like yesterday when the weather got so bad the organisers deemed it necessary to neutralise the race for a 🎃while. Some riders weren’t happy with how that was handled - more on that later.

There are already lots of attacks firing out of the peloton, but nobody is being allowed up the road eaဣsily. 

Here were the jersey wearers at the start of the stage - albeit with their jerseys covered up, what with the cold w🌠eather. Jonas Vingegaard is in yellow, Tim Merlier in green, and Matthias Skjelmose in white after yesterday’s GC shake up.

190KM TO GO

The peloton is still together, withღ no break having been formed. 

CÔTE DE SAINT-POLGUES

There’s a chance for riders with strong cli🐷mbing legs to go clear, as they ascend the day's first climb, the 1.5km Côte de Saint-Polgues, av🐻eraging 5.6%.

Some riders are fa𒉰lling out of the peloton already, incuding Fabio Jakobsen.

Kobe Goossens (Intermarché-Wanty) is the first rider to t🍸he top 💞of the climb.

He took three points in the King of the Mountains Classification, witཧh Guillermo Thomas Silva two and Georg Steinhauser one. 

None of those riders had previously taken any points, so th🎉e KOM rankings remain 🉐as they were:

1 João Almeida 20

2 Thomas Gachignard 17

3 Alexandre Delettre 12 

4 Jonas Vingegaard 10

5 Andreas Leknessund 9

180KM TO GO

Plenty of attacks are being made, but nothing 💮is sticking.

Here's a first look at tꦡhe riders out on the road.

Guillaume Martin has just made it back into the peloton, having had a mechanical earlier. The Frenchman is in line for a high overall finish having finished 16th yesterday, moving him up to🐻 16th on GC.

Kobe Goossens🧜 was at the front of the race briefly, but he, like ever other attacker so far, was brought back. 

The riders are done descending, and are on flat r𝐆oads for now. This could change the type of rider best equipped to get up the road.

Neilson Powless is one rider trying to get into the break. He’ll have more freedom to do so 🅠having dropped out of GC contentio♉n yesterday.

170KM TO GO

Still the battle to get into the break goes on, with no siꦍgn of it relenting.

A 7-man group briefly formed,﷽ but they too have been brought back.

160KM TO GO

Ten riders in a new group try their luck, but they too are unsuccessful.༒ Still we have no break.

Three more riders have attacked&hel🀅lip;and they ha𓂃ve a gap!

The three riders are Micꦑhael Matthews, Sean Flynn and Anders Skaarseth, and they have gap of almost 30 seconds.

In pursuit of them are four more riders: Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Anthon Turgis (Total E💜nergies) Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros).

Schmid, Armirail ꦚand🍸 Turgis are 20 seconds behind the leading trio, and Nicolau 10 seconds behind them.

Ineos are leading the peloton, and t♑hey're not happy to let these ꦛbreaks go.

The chasing trio have cau💮ght the leading trio, forming what is a very strong group of quality puncheurs.

150KM TO GO

🔯The fight goes on, though, as the peloton remain꧟s just 18 seconds behind.

 Nicolau was unable to bridge to the lea𝓰ders, and is back in the peloton.

We've done 🌺an hour of racing now, and already 49.5km have been completed. This has 🦄been full-on racing.

A reminder of the 6 leaders:

Michael Matthews

Sean Flynn

Anders Skaarseth

Mauro Schmid

Anthony Turgis

Bruno Armirail

140KM TO GO

There's still only a handful of seconds for the leaders, who aren't being let go༺ by the peloton.

The lead group has alsꦍo grown in size, the 6 having been joined byJosh Tarling, Oscar Riesebee♐k, Warren Barguil and Jonas Abrahamsen. 

Strength in numbers hasn't helped thou♐gh - the break has been caug💞ht.

Tudor Pro Cycling was the team who shut the move do𓆏wn. Clearly they fancy Juli♑an Alaphilippe's chances today.

So the a꧒ttacks commence again, star♉ting with a Cofidis rider.

Clément Izquierdo is the Cof꧑idis ride🐻r, but he's been brought back already. 

The riders are now ascending an uncategorised climb which is fol🎀lowed by another uncategorised uphill drag. This might be aꦅ chance for riders to go clear.

130KM TO GO

Ben Swift and Thibaud Gruel are the latest riders to try an attack. Will they succeed where everyone e🃏lse has🃏 failed?

They have a small gap. Behind, Callum Scotson (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) is chasing🎃 them.

Tobias Bayer of Alpecin-Deceuninc🙈k is al🃏so chasing them.

Grueꦓl and Swift are 10 seconds ahead of Scotson, 18 ahead of Bayer, and 33 ahead of the peloton.

More moves from the peloton, as Mauro Schmid and Kobe Goossens again try their luck. They've joined Bayer and Scotson, and have formed a quartet in pursuit of Swift and Gruel🍌ꦐ.

They've been caught by the p👍eloton, leaving jဣust Swift and Gruel out in front.

The peloton aren't letting them g෴o, and have themꦍ at just 15 seconds.

While we wait for the break to form, let's look at some of the fall out from yesterday�♐�'s stage.

Jonas Vingegaard might have taken the yellow jersey, but 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:was adamant afterwards in his belief that the stage should ha🐈ve been cancelled.

120KM TO GO

30 seconds now for the two leaders,🃏 Ben Swift and Thibaud Gruel. They've been out there a while now, at least relative to a🎉ll of today's other attackers.

In contrast to Jonas Vingegaard, stage winner João Almeida felt the right decision was made to race on, reasoning that “168澳洲5最新开奖结果:cycling is not a sport for softies.”

A chase group did form out of the peloton, but Visma-Lease a Bik⭕e were having none of it, and brought them back. Still Swift and Gruel lead the race up the road.  

Here are Swift and Gruel leading the race.

And here's the peloton chasing them close behind.

110KM TO GO

The gap's down to 20 seconds. Again, it's Tudor Pro Cycling pulling t꧒he peloton.

They’re motoring along now as they descend back down the draggy uphill they’ve just reached the top of. They’re headed towards the foot of the next official climb, Côte de Trèves (2.3 km &a🔯grave; 5.8%).

This descent is proving beneficial to the leading duo. They’ve grown their lead to over a minute - the ꦫhighest anyone has managed all day.

100KM TO GO

1-10 for Swift and Gruel. ♊Is this now the break o🦩f the day?

CÔTE DE TREVES

That's it, the peloton has sat up. Swift and Gruel ꦓat last have been let go, and they climb the Côte de Trèves with a gap of nearly three minutes. 

Sw🎃ift and Gruel sweep up the points at the top of the climb in that order, while Gachignard moves to the front of thওe peloton to take the remaining one on offer.

Here's the updated standings. Gachignard is closing the gap to Almeida (who took the jersey thanks to the points on offerꦺ at yesterday's summit finish).

1 João Almeida 20

2 Thomas Gachignard 18

3 Alexandre Delettre 12 

4 Jonas Vingegaard 10

5 Andreas Leknessund 9

CRASH

Jonas Vingegaard has crashed.

Vingegaard required a bike chꦕanꦑge, but is back up and riding.

He's now back in the bunch.

Here is Vingegaard j♛ust after that fall. He doesn't look stressed, nor hurt.

Here's Vingegaard getting an energy gell fr🤡om his team car after the i♎ncident. He seems to have a small cut near his lips.

80KM TO GO

Up ahᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚead, the two leaders still have a healthꦜy lead, up to nearly three minutes.

The uphil𓃲l finish today might be short but it’s more than steep enough to ensure a GC battle, so Vingegaard can’t afford to be too badly hurt if he is to avoid losing time.&n🦄bsp;

The peloton, much calmer now than it was earlier.

Ryan Gibbons has abandoned the race. That leaves Lidl-Trek down to just five riders, which isn't much to support the G🌸C bid of leader Matthias Skjelmose, who is currently ranked third ove𝓰rall. 

Now Fabio Jakobsen has pulled out. He was having a to🌃ugh time earlier today when he was one of the first riders to be dropped out of the peloton, and wasn’t able to get up there in the spurs earlier this week, his highest placing being ninth on stage 2.

Two more riders confirmed as DNFs - Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis) and Samuel Leroux (Total Energies). It’s a surprise the latter made it so far into this race, given how much he was hurt in a crash a couple of days aꩲgo.

Given that only two riders were able to get into⭕ the day’s break in the end, it’s advantage the peloton in term✤s of the stage win. Tudor Pro Cycling are backing Julian Alaphilippe, and are leading the peloton.

70KM TO GO

Tu💝dor are keeping the break under control. With 70km to go, the gap has dipped just below two minutes. 

Though the advantage is with the peloton rath🎀er than the break, that doesn’t necessarily mean the stage will be decided on the final climb. There are four climbs to come before then, so plenty of opportunities for earlier attacks.

We will soon be entering the final, climb-int🍰ensive phase of the stage. A long, slight uphill drag will take them to the foot of Côte du Château Jaune in about 20km, the first of five climbs inside the final 5ꦿ0km.

Remember that stage four of Tirreno-Adriatico is taking place today. You can follow the action here, where crosswinds is making for fun racing.

60KM TO GO

Only 1-30 for the 2 leaders. The odds 𒉰are stacked firmly against them.

Here's the pelo▨ton, being pul༺led along by Tudor Pro Cycling.

That was earlier - now theꦉ peloton have knocked off the pace, all bunched up with no teams pulling.

The slowing of the pace has seen the break's l𝔉ead increase a little, to 1-45.

50KM TO GO

Still 1-45 for the break, who ar⛦e approaching the foot of the Côte du Chateau Jaune. Things will start to get lively soon. 

CÔTE DU CHATEAU JAUNE

The 2 leaders are climbing now. The Côte du Chateau Jaune is, like all of these final five climbs, short and steep, la🃏sting 1.2km and averaging a very tough 9.2%.

The race is𝔍 on in the peloton. The pace's up massively as teams race for position.

Visma lead the peloton onto the climb, tho♚ugh Vingegaard is further down the peloton away from his teammates.

Visma continue to lead on the climb. They've ꦿbrought the gap to the leaders down to 1-08.

The leading duo has reached the top, Gruel ta⛦king the points ahead o✤f Swift.

Some🌠 riders are being dropped out the peloton as they near the top, including many who tired themselves out trying to get into the day's break earlier - Abrahamsen, Tur🧸gis and Armirail.

The peloton crest the climb, still 1-08 behind.

UAE Team Emirates and Ineo🧜s now at the front with Visma.

Incidentally, it was Red Bull’s Ben Zwiehoff and none of the KOM contenders who took the last point on offer at the top of the climb, meaning t✨here’s no change to the rankings. 

CÔTE DE SIBUZE

The hills come thick and fast f♚rom here on in. They’re now climbing Côte de Sibuze, which is again very steep at 8.3%, albe꧙it only for only 1.1km.

Attack from Foss on the climb.

This is a similar move to the one Foss made 🤡yesterday, attacking out of the peloton in pursuit of the already-established break.

Foss is 💃up to Gruel and Swift - the latter of whom is of course his Ineos teammate.

Oscar Riesebeek has attacked out of the peloton.

And now Micဣhael Matthews attacks, on ♊the descent of the climb.

I say 'descent' - it's actually still rolling roads and false flats for a little whi🃏le before the proper downhill.

Matthews is joined by Ivan Romeo, who have joined up with Riesebeek. This is a st🅠r♒ong counter-attack.

40KM TO GO

There are about 40 seconds between the 3 leaders and these 3 chasers, who are themselves only a few seconds a🦄🦩head of the peloton.

At the ꦅtop of the climb, Gruel took the points ahead of Swift and Foss. He now moves up to 6th on the KOM rankings:

1 João Almeida 20

2 Thomas Gachignard 18

3 Alexandre Delettre 12 

4 Jonas Vingegaard 10

5 Andreas Leknessund 9

6 Thibaud Gruel 8

Riesebeek, Matthe༺ws and Romeo are now 10 seconds ahead of the peloton.

Decathlon lead the peloton a💜s they descend towards the foot of Côte de ✤Chavagneux.

Rieꦉsebeek, Romeo and Matth🐲ews have been brought back by the peloton.

The thr💃ee riders at the frontꦜ are still working well together, and have a lead of almost a minute.

CÔTE DE CHAVAGNEUX

Theyܫ𝓡're climbing again, this time for 1.1km at 8.2%. 

Foss has gone clear on his own on the climb.

Decath꧂lon still lead the peloton on the climb, with Jayco nearby.

30KM TO GO

Foss is ꦇretaining a lead of 55 seconds over the peloton.

Foss reaches the top, 52 seconds ahead.

Decathlon lead the peloton🧔 over the climb. There were no more attacks, but some riders were shelled out of the back.

Gruel and Swift hung on to claim 2 and 1 po♏ints respectively at the top of the climb. Here's the new rankings:

1 João Almeida 20

2 Thomas Gachignard 18

3 Alexandre Delettre 12 

4 Thibaud Gruel 10

5 Jonas Vingegaard 10

Swift has since been brought back, and Gruel is abou🐼t ﷺto follow him.

Foss' lead is up to 1-06, whic🔴h actually makes him the virtual yellow jersey. He's very unlikely to hold that though, what with the𓄧 climbs to come. 

20KM TO GO

Despite a fast pace in the peloton, Foss is holding on for now, building 🅰his lead🌌 up to 1-10.

Here was Foss moving away from Gruel on the climb. He's looked very🍬 stღrong these past two days.

Interestingly, Jonas Vingegaard is still further down the bunch from the rest of his Visma teammates, despite the all-important fight for potion as we approach the net clꩵimb The Dane has spent much of this stage further back than you’d expect - is he feeling 100% after his crash? Or are Visma now riding for Jorgenson instead?

CÔTE D’ARZAY

Tudor 💛Pro Cycling are at the front as they st🦩art the climb.

Foss is further up the climb, 52 seconds ahead.

Attack from Geniets.

He's failed to get away.

He's st𒉰ill trying though, and has strung out the peloton.

Foss reaches the top, his lead down to just 38 s🦹econds.

𓄧Visma and Lidl lead the peloton over the top of the cl🎉imb. The group remains together, with nobody having attacked clear.

Mauro Schm🍷id has managed to go cl🀅ear just after the summit.

Here's Vism🐻a riding at the front, but minus 🍌Vingegaard who was further down the peloton.

Schmid has been caught by the peloton.

Foss rolls over the intermediate sprint🔯 for 6 bon♔us seconds. 4 and 2 are on offer for the peloton.

Mads Pedersen took the 4 sec🌞onds in defence of his leader Skjelmose, but cᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚan't stop Lipowitz coming through third for 2 seconds. 

10KM TO GO

27 seconds now for Foss, ah🌠ea♚d of a peloton which is now charging.

Pedersen is putting on the⛎ pace, and there🔥's been a split.

Felix Ga𓃲ll has been caught the wrong side of that spl🐲it, and his Decathlon AG2R team are leading the chase.

There's perhaps only about 40 riders left iꦰn the fron🐼t peloton.

Visma are at th𒈔e front of th♐is front peloton, and now have Vingegaard with them. We can only assume he's feeling OK after all.

Decathlon have brought Gall and the other dropped riders back into the ♒peloton.

Visma continue to lead💜 up a small uncategorised rise. This is the last uphill until the final climb.

🎃Foss only has 5 seconds now, and is about to be caught.

5KM TO GO

We're nearing the finale - just 3.3km🅠 until the start of Côte de Notre-Dame-de-Sciez. It's the hardest climb of the day, with gradients of an eye-watering 10.8% for 1.7km.

Foss has been cau💦ght. Everything's in place for an uphill slog sprint to decide the stage win.

Will it be the GC contenders likꦓꦕe Vingegaard or Almeida who take the win? Or can someone like Alaphilippe get involved?

Lidl-Trek are leading the 🍸peloton. Skjelmose must like the look of this climb.

It looks like 💞there are about 50 or ꧃60 riders left in the peloton.

Pedersen is the rider leading for Lidl-Trek.

Pedersen's pace has again been enough to force a split even 𒀰before the uphill.

CÔTE DE NOTRE-DAME-DE-SCIEZ

They've begun the climb!

Pedersen♉ leads the peloton onto it, but straight away swings oওff.

Ineos take ov🅺er, with Jorgenson and Vingegaard on his w💎heel.

Now Zingle takes over for Visma.

Jorgenson is on Zingleಌ's wheel, Vingegaard a littleღ further down with Almeida.

Gall has been dropped, among others.

UAE's McNulty takes over from Visma.

Vingegaard is being dropped!

He's really 🦩struggling, battling wit his bike to try and stay in the peloton.

His teammate J💯orgenson is at the front of the group, and looks strong.

While Vingegaard hasn't been dropped, he's down at the ꦜback of the peloton, which are several seconds behind on this steep climb.

Skjelmose is ♌also being dropped. He's lost Vingegaard's wheel.

Now there is da𒅌ylight between Vingegaard and the front 10 or so rders in the peloton.

Almeida is falling away a bit from the front 8.

Jorgenson is going clear!

2 riders come up to him.

Tejada and Martinez are the two riders.

Martinez attacks!

LENNY MARTINEZ WINS

Vingegaard arrives about 30 seconds down.

Martinez accelerated past Jorgenson iജn the final few ♔metres to take the win. 

Jorgenson was pipped 🍌into third by Champoussin, who's Astana teamma𓆉te Tejada was fourth.

Lipowitz was next in 5th 🌟at 6 seconds, followed by João Almeida in 6th at 7 seconds.

All this means that Jorgenson takes the yellow jersey away from Vingegaard again, after they swapped it the oജther way the day before. 

It's clear now that Vingegaard must have been hurtꦍ in that crash. We've just seen some footage of 💃him at the finish, of him holding his wrist, seemingly in some pain.

As for the s🤡tage winner, this is a landmark moment in the career of Lenny Martinez. The 21-year-old has shown great promise already, but 𝔉this is his first ever win at World Tour level - and he was up against a quality field. 

Vingegaard’s loss is his teammate’s Matteo Jorgenson’s gain. The Dane takes the yellow jersey again following a strong third-place finish today, and is suddenly better established as the team’♐s outright leader with a lead of 22 seconds over his teammate.

Vingegaard does still remain second on GC behindꦆ Jorgenson, but is now clearly nursing injuries. We’ll see if he can recover over the next few days, but it seems a tall order given how gingerly he looked at the finish.

By finishing fifth on the stage, Lipowitz moves up to third overall, and is now arguably Jorgenson and Visma’s biggest threat for the overall ti♕tle.

It still feels like Al🍒meida is the main danger though. He rode in his usual manner today to slip back on🐻ly to charge back up for a 6th place finish. He’s now 4th on GC, 40 seconds down.

As well as Lipowitz and Almeida, Martinez and Skjelmose are all also within 1 mi🔥nute of Jorgenson. 

With Vingegaard injured, and being beaten for two consecutive days, suddeღnly Visma-Lease a Bike don’t seem to have this race quite as under con♏trol as they did post the team time trial.

Another interesting stat - Vi🐻ngegaard is the only rider in the top 9 who is over the age of 26. This has been a Paris-Nice of youth, illustrated by 21-year-old Martinez's victory today.

📖A grimacing Jo🥃nas Vingegaard crosses the line, down in 16th.

Despite all the work done by Tudor Pro Cycling, Julian Alapℱhilippe finished down in 11th, only once place ahead of his teammate Michael Storer. Will we ever see him fly up uphill finishes like this as he onc📖e did?

Thanks for joining us today! Be sure to keep checking Cyclingnews for updates on the fall-out from today’s stage, as the aftermath of Vingegaard’s crash becomes clear - and tomorrow, where we’ll be back with live ꦡcoverage of stage 6.