Cologne professional cyclist Nils Politt missed his first victory in a major race by a narrow margin. The 24-year-old from Team Katusha-Alpecin took second place behind Frenchman Jerome Cousins (Direct Energie) on the fifth leg of the Paris-Nice long-distance trip after 163.5 km from Salon-de-Provence to Sisteron as part of an outlier duo. Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) from Rostock won the sprint of the chasing field.
Three stages before the end, the Spanish experienced Luis Leon Sanchez wears the yellow jersey of the overall leader. The 34-year-old from Team Astana has a 15-second lead over the Dutchman Wout Poels (Sky), winner of the individual time trial on Wednesday, and 26 seconds over Julian Alaphilippe (France/Quick-Step Floors) and Marc Soler (Spain/Movistar).
On Friday, the hilly sixth stage leads 198 km from Sisteron to Vence, which is already close to Nice. On Sunday the 76th day ends. 1st edition of the long-distance trip after a total of 1187 kilometres in the city on the Cote d’ Azur.