Jerome Cousin wins dramatic stage five at Paris-Nice
By Andy Charles
Last Updated: 08/03/18 7:13pm
Direct Energie's Jerome Cousin ended a five-year wait for a victory in a dramatic finish to stage five of Paris-Nice.
Cousin timed his finish to perfection at the end of the 165km run in Sisteron, sprinting away from breakaway colleague Nils Pollitt to take victory as the peloton bore down on them.
Pollitt (Katusha) finished two seconds behind Cousin with Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) winning the bunch sprint for third place, a further two seconds behind.
There was no change in the overall standings, with Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) retaining his 15-second lead over Team Sky's Wout Poels with three stages remaining.
Poels did have a lucky escape in the final kilometre when he had to swerve to narrowly avoid a crash.
Frenchman Cousin, a previous overall winner of the Tour of Normandy, had not won in the professional ranks since his stage win at Etoile de Besseges in 2013.
"I knew that I had the legs to win this stage," said Cousin. "But I had big cramps on the last climb and I saw that he was strong on the flat.
"Ten days ago, I didn't even know that I was going to take part in Paris-Nice. I was the last man in the team.
"I have the polka dot jersey [for best climber], and that was the goal of the day. Victory on the stage is the icing on the cake."
