page_title: 2016 Paris–Nice
section_title: Stage 5
hierarchical_section_title: 2016 Paris–Nice / Stages / Stage 5
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Chalet Reynard près du Mont Ventoux.
context_page_description: The 2016 Paris–Nice was a road cycling stage race that took place in France between 6 and 13 March 2016. It was the 74th edition of the Paris–Nice and was the second event of the 2016 UCI World Tour.
  The race took place over eight stages, travelling south from Conflans-Sainte-Honorine to finish on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, although one stage was cancelled due to weather conditions. After a prologue individual time trial, the first few stages were suited to sprinters. The decisive stages came on the final two days, with routes taking the riders through the Alps. The favourites for victory were therefore the climbers, including the defending champion Richie Porte, Alberto Contador and Geraint Thomas.
  Michael Matthews won the prologue and took the leader's yellow jersey. He kept the jersey through the next five days, winning one more of the stages in a sprint. He lost the jersey on the summit finish on Stage 6 to Thomas, who in turn came close to losing it on the final day. After he was dropped by Contador on the final climb of the race, the Col d'Èze, he had to chase back on.
context_section_description: 11 March 2016 — Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Salon-de-Provence, 198 km (123.0 mi)
  The fifth road stage followed a 198-kilometre (123 mi) route from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Salon-de-Provence in Bouches-du-Rhône. The stage included five climbs, the most significant of which was the partial climb of Mont Ventoux. This was a first-category climb, taking the riders 9.5 kilometres (5.9 mi) at an average gradient of 9.3%. Rather than riding all the way to the summit, the riders descended after Chalet Reynard. This climb came with more than 125 kilometres (78 mi) remaining in the stage. Before Mont Ventoux was a third-category climb; afterwards there were three second-category climbs. The last of these came with 38.5 kilometres (23.9 mi) to the finish line; this last section was mostly flat, although there were two sharp left-hand turns in the final 1,000 metres (1,100 yd).
  The early breakaway included Stijn Vandenbergh (Etixx–Quick-Step), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Lars Boom (Astana), Wouter Wippert (Cannondale), Edward Theuns (Trek–Segafredo), Matthias Brändle (IAM), Antoine Duchesne (Direct Énergie) and Jesús Herrada (Movistar). In the first 30 kilometres (19 mi), their lead extended to over eleven minutes. On the climb of Mont Ventoux, Brändle was dropped from the breakaway, while Bouhanni, Kittel and Greipel were among those dropped from the peloton. Greipel was among seven riders to drop out during the stage. Wippert and Theuns were next to be dropped from the breakaway; Boom and Vandenbergh were also temporarily dropped but were able to rejoin the front group, although the group's lead was reduced to just over three minutes by the third climb of the day. Herrada won the first two climbs of the day and came second on the following two to take the lead in the mountains classification, then dropped back to the peloton.
  Duchesne attacked on the penultimate climb, the Côte de la Roque-d'Anthéron, and had a 33-second lead over the peloton. On the descent from the final climb, Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) attacked from the peloton and came across to Duchesne. Lutsenko quickly dropped him and, with 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) remaining, had built a 39-second lead, putting him into the virtual lead of the race. The chase only began in earnest in the final 3 kilometres (1.9 mi), with Katusha chasing on behalf of Alexander Kristoff, but the peloton were unable to catch Lutsenko and he crossed the line for a solo victory, 21 seconds ahead of the chasing group. Kristoff won the sprint for second, with Matthews finishing third. Lutsenko moved into second place overall, six seconds behind Matthews.
  After the stage, Matthews said that he felt he could win the overall general classification. He said, "I think if I can survive Saturday [Stage 5], I can win. With the way I’ve been climbing, I think it’s possible." Contador, meanwhile, said that the final climb of Stage 6 was not very steep and that it might be difficult to put significant time into Matthews.
caption: On Stage 5, the climb of Mont Ventoux finished at Chalet Reynard, midway up the mountain
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