Pedersen wins sixth stage as Jorgenson keeps Paris-Nice lead

PARIS: Mads Pedersen triumphed as a deluge of freezing rain drenched the sixth stage of the Paris-Nice on Friday while defending champion Matteo Jorgenson retained the yellow jersey.

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Winning from a long-range breakaway, Denmark's Lidl-Trek team leader Pedersen has a history of cold weather wins, including at the soggy 2019 world championships in northern England.

"It reminds me of the race in 2019, at the end of September, which was even worse and with the same outcome, a victory for me," said Pedersen.

The gritty Dane was one of the few to race on Friday without a zipped-up windbreaker to counter the downpours which followed snow and hail earlier in the week.

The testing, wintry conditions are a long way off the event's fabled tagline of the "Race to the Sun" which concludes on the French Riviera.

"Today, it was five degrees, rain all day, it's hard to be a cyclist in these conditions, especially when the stage is 200km long," Pedersen added.

"But in the end, it was a great day."