McNulty reclaims yellow after gutsy attack

• American 2nd on stage and takes yellow heading into weekend​

It was a cold but successful day at Paris-Nice for UAE Team Emirates as Brandon McNulty reclaimed the yellow jersey after slipping into the winning move in the closing kilometres of Stage 6 from Sisteron to La Colle-sur-Loup(198.2km).

McNulty infiltrated a three man escape alongside Matteo Jorgenson (Visma LAB) and eventual stage winner Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) which build up a lead of over a minute on a group of favourites which chased behind. The group would arrive to the line with McNulty confidently pulling on the leader’s jersey ahead of two crucial days of defending it.

McNulty: “This morning we expected teams to do something, and, in the end, it was an aggressive race. I knew there would be attacks when the group stalled a bit after the last main climb and that’s when it happened. If there was one guy, I knew I could work well with in a breakaway with apart from my teammates it was Jorgenson, so it was fun, it reminded me of when we raced together as juniors. We’re in a good position but we still have two hard days coming up probably with bad weather also, so we’ll have to work very hard to defend the lead.”

Meanwhile at Tirreno -Adriatico Juan Ayuso and Isaac Del Toro put in a defiant display to limit their losses to runaway leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma LAB) who took the 5th stage from Torricella Sicura to Valle Castellana (144km).

Ayuso continues in 2nd place at 54” from the Dane, with Del Toro in 6th at 1’34”. Ayuso also leads the young rider classification.

Ayuso: “It wasn’t my best day on a bike but I was still up at the front and able to be competitive. Though Vingegaard was on a different level to everyone else. Del Toro was really impressive, he pushed on through the downhill and was pushing the pace also during the up and overs. I think he was the strongest guy after Vingegaard today, so a big thanks to him and also the rest of the team. Tomorrow will be another big day so we’ll aim for a stage win, even though we know Vingegaard will be tough to beat.”

Paris Nice stage 6 results

1.Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) 4:36:51

2.Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) s.t

3.Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-LAB) s.t

Paris Nice GC after stage 6

1.Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) 22:15:58

2.Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-LAB) +23”

3.Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) +34”

Tirreno Adriatico stage 5 results

1.Jonas Vingegaard (Visma LAB) 3:28:27

2.Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +1’12”

3.Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) s.t

Tirreno Adriatico GC after stage 5

1.Jonas Vingegaard (Visma LAB) 18:34:45

2.Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +54”

3.Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) +1’20”