After three abandons following crashes, we are left with our first Point d’Appui of the 2013 Paris-Nice Classic. Jerome Cousin of Team Europcar slipped into the fulcrum position of the race, right behind teammate Vincent Jerome. That’s right, two Jeromes. If Jerome Cousin married Vincent Jerome, he would be…

Cousin started the day in 131st place and finished up in 91st, not by dent of power but rather by avoiding the pavement that ate up many riders. Cousin is 15 seconds behind the new leader of the race, Nacer Bouhanni of FDJ, and slightly more than 17 minutes ahead of Alexander Kristoff, the Katusha rider who took a nasty fall in the latter 50 kilometers of the race but managed to limp in to Nemours for the finish.

For the stage, Maxim Iglinskiy of Astana Pro Team took the maillot gris.