Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) put on a master class on stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico to take his second stage win on a Classics-style circuit around Castelfidardo in punishing Spring Classics conditions.
The Dutchman soloed away from a select lead group 52 kilometres from the line into a sudden storm that whipped up high winds, rain, and plummeting temperatures and narrowly holding off a furious solo chase from race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).
Pogačar attacked 17 kilometres from the line up the final ascent of the 15 per cent slope of the Castelfidardo wall and went on to put in an incredible solo pursuit of the Dutch champion, slashing a three-minute gap that Van der Poel had built up with a long-range attack to just 10 seconds at the line.
“I was riding completely on empty in the last few kilometres. I was told that Pogačar was coming close but I wasn't even able to listen. I just wanted to reach the finish as fast as I could," Van der Poel said. "I'm happy with the win. I attacked from far away because I was cold and I felt good until 20km to go.”
Van der Poel's move came as the already much reduced leading group was punished by the cold rain and, his engine revving into the red, quickly left all the overall contenders behind. Having lost over 20 minutes on the previous stage, Van der Poel was no threat to Pogacar's blue jersey, and the chase only picked up on the final of four laps of the 23.6km circuit.
It was Pogačar himself who set off in solo pursuit, leaving Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) behind on the penultimate trip up the terrible 'wall' of a climb and halving Van der Poel's advantage over ten kilometres. Pogačar halved it again in the final 5km, and with 2.5km to go, Van der Poel had just 46 seconds over the Tour de France winner and a steep finishing climb that would push the Dutch champion to his limit.
His legs clearly turned to blocks of lead, Van der Poel looked back to see Pogačar's approach but the line came soon enough to give the Alpecin-Fenix rider his second stage victory of the race.
Pogačar's effort also pushed second-placed Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) to his limit, with the Belgian unable to hold the UAE Team Emirates rider's pace on the final muro to go. Van Aert time trialed in for third on the stage at 49 seconds.
"When I saw Wout van Aert suffering I went to try and get more time on GC but I never thought I would be anywhere close to catching Van der Poel," Pogacar said. "I'm super happy with the advantage I have over Van Aert now before the time trial."
CFF League stage 5 winner =
Mitte 
Mitte is still the GC leader with 2 more stages to go.
Roglič wins stages 6 and 7, and if nothing very unexpected happens, he will win Paris Nice. Today the final stage.
Well, it is cycling, so something very unexpected happened in this stage 8 ;
Roglič crashed twice, and was isolated behind the group of GC contenders ( see picture ), who gave full pace.
In the end Roglič not even finished top 10 GC, instead of his expected Paris Nice victory.
Cort wins this stage 8, and
Schachmann wins the final GC. 2nd GC is Vlasov and 3rd GC is I.Izagirre.
CFF League stage 8 winner =
ophiuko GC winner =
ophiuko ophiuko wins also the
sprint-,
mountain-, and
youth jerseys.
Congrats with your first tour victory, ophiuko ! 
