Olav Kooij of the Netherlands sprinted to victory in the fifth stage of the Paris-Nice cycling race on Thursday, his second victory in this year's race.

The Visma-Lease rider crossed the line after a bunch sprint ahead of Dane Mads Pedersen who the 22-year-old also beat in the first stage last Sunday.

"Today we just committed. We had a great plan and I'm very happy I could take my second win," said Kooij.

Germany's Pascal Ackermann finished third after the hilly 193.5km ride from Saint-Sauveur-de-Montagut to Sisteron.

Australian Luke Plapp of Jayco-AlUla holds the overall leader's yellow jersey in the 'Race to the Sun' with a 13-second advantage on Colombia's Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain) with three stages to go.

"I love being in yellow," said Plapp.

"I'm not sure about tomorrow. Originally, we came here trying to win that stage... (now) the focus will be to defend the jersey."

Looking forward to the weekend, the weather is set to take a bad turn, both for Friday's stage, between Sisteron and La Colle-sur-Loup, and the penultimate stage on Saturday with snow forecast at the finish line in Auron.

Race organisers are still waiting for the latest forecasts before possibly proposing an alternative arrival destination for Saturday.

Of the pre-race favourites, Remco Evenepoel remains fifth in the general ranking and Primoz Roglic lies 15th, 30 seconds and 1min 10sec behind the leader respectively.