When Jonas Vingegaard attacked more than 4km from the first summit finish of Paris-Nice, no one could have predicted that he would drag his tired body across the finish line in sixth place, 43 seconds behind his archrival Tadej Pogachar.

Vingegaard pulled away from Pogachar in a move reminiscent of last year's Tour de France and appeared to be in firm control of the early maneuvers.

However, according to Jumbo Visma director Grischa Niermann, this was a move that ultimately backfired.

"Maybe I shouldn't have attacked him in the first place. [But that's life. He wanted to feel good and try, but in the end he didn't succeed.

Vingegaard found Pogachar stuck to his rear wheel and decided not to continue the attack.

Still, as Vingegaard slowly but surely passed the others and crossed the gap to Pogachar, things did not look overly worrisome, even though there was a relative mountain to climb. But just when it looked as if contact might occur with two kilometers to go, Vingegaard broke away again.

Pogachar accelerated on the curve and caught up to Gaudu, but this was more due to Vingegaard's delay. Pogachar accelerated on the curve and caught up with Gauddu, but this was due to Vingegaard tailing off. The gap opened up again, and a yawning Gino Mader (Bahrain Victorious) caught up with him and passed him.

"Today was not my best day. Jonas was feeling really good and then he got a little bit overrun at the end. But that's racing." [Of course he is disappointed. He wanted to go higher."

With the Jumbo Visma team's victory in Tuesday's team time trial, Vingegaard regained the 12-second bonus Pogachar collected in the first two days of intermediate sprints and gained an additional 11 seconds.

However, by the time Pogachar had gained 43 seconds on the summit of the Garde and added another 12 seconds of bonus seconds, the Tour de France champion was in third place but 44 seconds down after four stages.

With an even tougher test coming up over the weekend, this seemed to be the coup de grace for Vingegaard's overall title hopes.

"We'll see what happens. The race ends Sunday afternoon, but we won't give up until then," said Niermann.

"But Pogachal's spring has been unbelievably good. He's looking very strong right now."