Primoš Roglic took over the yellow jersey from Wout Van Aert on stage 5 of Paris-Nice.

The Slovenian remains the favorite to win the race overall, but his team's impregnable brilliance shown in the Moyenne Mountains of Ardèche has dulled.

Rohan Dennis was the pacemaker on the Col de la Mouret and made up for the shortcomings of the others, but Roglic was completely isolated in the last 20 km of the stage.

During an attack battle in St. Vincent de Durfort, he took yellow and maintained a 39-second lead over Simon Yates (Bike Exchange-Jayco).

"It wasn't the most comfortable," admitted Roglic after the podium ceremony. 'That's just the way it is. Luckily, I had enough leg strength at the end to run with the best.

Jumbo Visma, who swept the top three places in the time trial on day one and stage four, remained in the top three overall when they left Saint-Just-Saint-Lambert on Thursday morning. However, their dominance was quickly loosened when Arkea Samsic took the lead on the Col de la Lure.

It was expected that classics like Christophe Laporte would lose contact here, but rather surprisingly, so did Steven Kruijswijk and overall leader Juan Art. However, it is reminiscent of the towering performance for Tao Geoghegan Hart in the final week of the 2020 Giro d'Italia.

It is not clear why Ineos was unable to capitalize on Dennis' undoubted talent last year, but the shift to Roglic here suggests that he could contribute to a challenge for the Tour de France in July. This week's Tirreno-Adriatico is led by Jonas Vingegaard and the climbing talents of Jumbo Visma.

Roglic, on the other hand, preferred to praise Denis' performance rather than bemoan his isolation on the run.

"It's certainly not ideal," he said. But Rohan, wow, he's half man, half motor. Another one. As we've seen, there are a lot of players like this on the team. It's great to see his strength, his work ethic. Hopefully we can avoid situations like this in the days to come."

Before the stage, some thought Van Aert, arguably the most dexterous rider since Sean Kelly, would emulate the Irishman by winning Paris-Nice after winning Wednesday's time trial.

However, Van Aert had previously insisted that he would not go for the GC here in order to concentrate on the cobbled classics. He sat up as soon as he began to struggle on the Col de la Mouret, and he was more than 24 minutes ahead of stage winner Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates).

It is not clear whether Van Aert had planned in advance to relax on this climb, or whether the feeling in his legs on the downhill dictated his approach.

"There was a lot going on," he said. I mean, it was definitely a hard day and I struggled with the team to control a strong breakaway group." On the last climb, Arcair accelerated and I started feeling my legs. Then my head switched and I decided to ride a little easier to the finish."

"After this race, we're going into the biggest classics. So personally, that's all I'm focused on. 0]

Logrich, meanwhile, suggested that the team's strategy was always to preserve itself in the second half of Paris-Nice, rather than go as deep as Van Aat did a year ago when he finished second overall in Tirreno-Adriatico.

"I mean, I can talk about it now, but I think that was the plan all along," Roglic said. Logrich said."

Whatever the reason for Van Aert's absence, Jumbo Visma's rivals were heartened. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) broke away from the peloton on the La Mure pass, but the distance to the finish and the strength of Denis made it impossible for the rest of the field to follow.

But when Dennis swept away on the final climb to St. Vincent de Durfort, Roglic's rivals tried to make it count. Adam Yates' stint was forcefully followed by an attack by Ineos' teammate Daniel Martinez. Simon Yates and Alexandre Vlasov then made digs, as did Pierre Latour, but Roglic withstood them with strength and composure.

"Guys, eh, there's too many. I've lost count," laughed Roglic. 'You can see there's a lot of them.'

In the overall standings, Roglic is 39 seconds behind Simon Yates, 41 seconds behind Latour, 56 seconds behind Martinez, 59 seconds behind Vlasov, and 1:11 behind Adam Yates.

Saturday's Col de Tourini summit finish is iffy due to the snow forecast, but it will not be easily controlled until Friday's Aubagne. Van Aert may be out of contention for the overall, but his support will be needed down the road.

"It's always an advantage to have a little bit of an easier race today. But I think he's in good shape."

Three days after home, Roglic is in a familiar ranking position: he has won eight of the last 11 stage races within a week, starting with victory at Ituria-Basque in 2018. And that record would have been even more staggering at 10 out of 11 wins had it not been for his big crashes at the 2020 Dauphiné and last year's Paris-Nice.

And therein lies the problem for the racers plotting to oust Roglic in the final three days of Paris-Nice. Whether surrounded by teammates or running alone, he is exceptional.