Team UAE's Joao Almeida won stage four of the Paris-Nice on Wednesday after Danish two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard attacked first on a tough final climb to take the overall lead.
The final kilometre was reminiscent of the Visma leader's Tour clashes with Tadej Pogacar, and as so often when vying with Almeida's teammate, Vingegaard simply slowed off in the finale to come second by 1sec.
Mattias Skjelmose finished third and French climber Lenny Martinez was fourth, a further second back.
🏁⛰ Première arrivée au sommet et première belle bataille entre favoris avec un final haletant! 🥵💪
— Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) March 12, 2025
⏪ Revivez le dernier kilomètre de l’étape 4
🏁⛰ The first summit finish brought an intense battle between the favorites in a thrilling finale! 🥵💪
⏪ Relive the final… pic.twitter.com/ZYijwBd5do
Vingegaard the winner of February's Tour of the Algarve, was unhappy with the weather and the stage but now leads Paris-Nice from overnight leader Matteo Jorgenson of the USA by 5sec.
"Nobody enjoyed that stage, it should have been stopped. We were all shivering," said the yellow jersey who learned his trade riding into coastal winds in a remote part of Denmark.
Portugal's Almeida is no fan of winter weather either.
"We deserved this win. I never gave up. It was snowing at one point and we were really suffering from the weather," he said.
Stage four had been slated as the opening salvo of mountain skirmishes on the eight-day 1 209km race with 28 hills, due to its total elevation of 3 100m.
Organisers ordered the peloton to stop about 45km from the scheduled ski resort finish at the Loge des Gardes due to inclement weather.
After long discussions the race restarted with 28.8km to go and a gap of 2min 20sec between the breakaway and the peloton was maintained.
Vingegaard struck his first blow on the final ascent, a 6.7km category 1 climb at 7.1 per cent average gradient at La Loge des Gardes.
But Almeida went with him and snuck past the Dane in the final stretch to claim first and now trails Vingegaard by 37sec in the general classification.
⛰️ La Loge des Gardes (cat. 1) ⛰️
— Maillot à Pois E.Leclerc (@maillotapois) March 12, 2025
1️⃣ 🇵🇹 @JooAlmeida98 , 20 pts
2️⃣ 🇩🇰 Jonas Vingegaard , 10 pts
3️⃣ 🇩🇰 @skjelmose_ , 6 pts
4️⃣ 🇫🇷 @lennymrtz1 , 4 pts
5️⃣ 🇩🇪 Florian Lipowitz , 2 pts#ParisNice pic.twitter.com/3EMwb2Jxat
"I can win this Paris-Nice, I want to show you who Joao Almeida is."
Thursday's stage five features rolling hills again as the race forges south before culminating with a pair of mountain stages in the Riviera backcountry this weekend.
The action should go down to the wire with a chase up the fabled slopes of the Col d'Eze, offering a sweeping view of the French Riviera, before the peloton race full on to the denouement on Nice's Promenade des Anglais.