Thomas Leads Paris-Nice

Last updated : 12 March 2014 By Covsupport News Service

Team Sky's Geraint Thomas leads the Paris-Nice race after being part of a late break away and finishing second on the fourth stage.

On a 201.5km stage from Nevers to Belleville, Europcar's Tommy Voeckler attacked straight after the flag was dropped but he was quickly caught and Valerio Agnoli (Astana), Laurent Didier (Trek Factory Racing), Spanish road champion Jesus Herrada (Movistar) and Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar), took over.

They had taken a maximum of 6.20 over a peloton which included race leader John Degenkolb with 91kms remaining.

Agnoli was first over the first climb of the day and he took the second and moved into the King Of The Mountains leaders jersey with the four points on the third climb.

With the gap dropping all the time, Didier took the maximum points from the second sprint.

Carlos Betancur attacked from the peloton and got past the escapers before Tom Jelte Slagter of Garmin-Sharp, followed by Team Sky's Geraint Thomas, who started the day in fifth place and was looking to take control of the General Classification.

With 6.6kms to go, Thomas was the virtual leader on the road, having a thirty second lead on the 26 rider strong group containing the yellow jersey of Degenkolb.

Vincenzo Nibali tried to drive this chasing group twowards Thomas and Slagter and although the time gap did come down, it was not going to stop Thomas and Slagter going head to head in a sprint.

Slagter went first and won in 5.00.09 ahead of Thomas with Belkin's Wilco Kelderman leading the chasing group home five seconds later.

Thomas leads the race leads Degenkolb by three seconds and Slagter by four seconds.

Slagter said to Eurosport on his stage win: "This is my first race of the season and I can't believe. It was the best day to do something but I did not expect to win. I knew that Geraint was fast strong and I had to wait and wait and sprint at the right moment but it went perfect."