Paris-Nice Stage 5 (spoiler)

[Keith A]

Did anyone watch yesterday's stage 5 of Paris-Nice? While Lieuwe Westra of Vacansoleil-DCM certainly had a great finish at the end of a very tough stage...what was he thinking by taking it easy to celebrate his win when he approached the finish line? It seems like if he would have kept hammering he would have been in yellow today. I realize that hindsight is 20/20, but he had to have known he was close.

[Lovetoclimb]

Sounds like it was a straight into the red-zone type of climb. That a TT specialist accelerated away from a select group of GC contenders must have had him seeing stars. I would guess any opportunity to ease off and celebrate would have been near impossible to ignore. Also he mentioned in an interview that now his team doesn't have to "defend" the jersey. He could very likely take 6' on Wiggo in the final TT . . .

It has been a great start to the season in my opinion. Lots of heavy hitters in good form.

[Keith A]

Here's a link to Paris-Nice on SteepHill TV and you can watch the end of the stage from yesterday if you are interested.

http://www.steephill.tv/paris-nice/

[the bottle ride]

Wiggo knows what he is doing- he did not let too much sunlight come through between them.

Stage win is huge for Vacansoleil.

[firerescuefin]

I was thinking the exact same thing. May not have been in yellow, but you're not wanting to give Wiggo any extra time going into the TT.

[MattTuck]

I keep losing the video feeds that have the eurosport english commentary. The dutch feed seems to be working well. But I am not sure what they're saying most of the time. I just catch rider/team names, and occassionally the guy goes LA LA LA LA LA LA.

[Keith A]

I was thinking the exact same thing. May not have been in yellow, but you're not wanting to give Wiggo any extra time going into the TT.Exactly!