photo credits @ Le Tour
Richie Porte (BMC Racing) won the penultimate stage of Paris-Nice today, after the BMC rider attacked from a small group of riders along the final climb of the Col de la Couillole, to claim a solo victory ahead of Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo).
Meanwhile, Daniel Martin (QuickStep) rounded out the podium, with Team Sky’s Sergio Henao finishing in fourth to take over the race lead.
Both the yellow jersey-wearer, Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) and Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) lost significant time during today’s summit finish, pushing the French rider back to fifth place in the overall GC.
Race Highlights
A small breakaway group containing Axel Dumont (AG2R-La Mondiale), Jan Poland (UAE), Omar Fraile (Dimension Data), Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie), Delio Fernandez (Delko-Marseille) and Pierre-Luc Périchon (Fortuneo Vital Concept), managed to escape early on in today’s stage – subsequently building up a sizable advantage of more than 5 minutes over the peloton.
However, along the ascent to the Col Saint-Martin, the breakaway group began to fracture, leaving Calmejane out front alone.
The French rider was eventually reined in by the peloton along final ascent with 15 kilometers to go.
From there, a select group of riders quickly began amassing on the Col de la Couillole, with Jarlinson Pantano setting a fierce pace to aid his Trek-Segafredo teammate, Contador, while Alaphilippe found himself in trouble during the last 10 kilometers and was later dropped.
Porte proved to be the most aggressive rider, attacking several times before Contador and Henao finally relented.
Contador would later jettison Henao during the last kilometer, but his efforts were not enough to catch Porte.
Additionally, there were several notable riders who abandoned during today’s stage, including green jersey Arnaud Démare (FDJ), Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Dan McLay (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale-Drapac).
Paris-Nice concludes tomorrow, with the final stage around Nice which includes five categorized climbs.
Stage 7 Results
AUS 1 PORTE, Richie (BMC RACING) 5:01:35 ESP 2 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TREK – SEGAFREDO) + 21 IRL 3 MARTIN, Daniel (QUICK – STEP FLOORS) + 32 COL 4 HENAO MONTOYA, Sergio Luis (SKY) ESP 5 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Jon (BAHRAIN – MERIDA) + 55 DEN 6 FUGLSANG, Jakob (ASTANA) + 1:07 FRA 7 LATOUR, Pierre Roger (AG2R LA MONDIALE) + 1:11 RUS 8 ZAKARIN, Ilnur (KATUSHA ALPECIN) + 1:21 ESP 9 SOLER GIMENEZ, Marc (MOVISTAR) ESP 10 IZAGIRRE INSAUSTI, Gorka (MOVISTAR) ESP 11 NIEVE ITURRALDE, Mikel (SKY) + 2:03 ESP 12 DE LA PARTE GONZALEZ, Victor (MOVISTAR) + 2:11 FRA 13 BARGUIL, Warren (SUNWEB) + 2:17 FRA 14 ALAPHILIPPE, Julian (QUICK – STEP FLOORS) + 2:40
General Classification after Stage 7 COL 1 HENAO MONTOYA, Sergio Luis (SKY) 27:01:15 IRL 2 MARTIN, Daniel (QUICK – STEP FLOORS) + 30 ESP 3 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TREK – SEGAFREDO) + 31 ESP 4 IZAGIRRE INSAUSTI, Gorka (MOVISTAR) + 1:00 FRA 5 ALAPHILIPPE, Julian (QUICK – STEP FLOORS) + 1:22
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