photo credits @ Paris-Nice
A year after crashing out of Paris-Nice, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) claimed emphatic revenge in this year’s Race to the Sun. However, the Danish rider had to settle for second place on the day, finishing behind Bahrain Victorious’ Lenny Martinez – the only rider able to follow him on the final climb of the race and the first French winner of the final stage since Arthur Vichot in 2014, but he increased his margin in the overall standings to historic proportions.
His gap of 4’23’’ to Dani Martinez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is the biggest recorded between winner and runner-up of Paris-Nice since 1939 and the fourth biggest in the history of the race. Vingegaard also secured the polka-dot jersey, as the winner of the KOM standings, and took the green jersey, as the winner of the points standings. Third in the overall standings, Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) also stepped on the podium to receive the best young rider’s white jersey.
All out from the start
The final stage started frantically, as many attackers tried to seize the last opportunity to shine, with Fabio Van den Bossche (Soudal Quick-Step), Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Alexandre Delettre (TotalEnergies) and Tim Marsman (Alpecin-Premier Tech) eventually breaking away after 9 kilometers of racing.
However, their gap never rose much beyond a minute, as the race heading towards the Col de la Porte caused both the peloton and the breakaway to explode on the ascent.
Paret-Peintre’s solo
After bridging his way to the escapees, Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) attacked along the Col de la Porte, quickly opening up a slight advantage of 25’’ ahead of Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates XRG).
Paret-Peintre kept pushing on the descent, while Soler was caught by the chase along the valley.
From there, the French climber remained out front as he tackled the Côte de Châteauneuf-Villevieille, steadily opening up his margin to 45’’.
Martinez vs Vingegaard
Meanwhile, Ineos Grenadiers upped the ante to try and propel Kevin Vauquelin onto the overall podium, while Dani Martinez was briefly involved in a crash. But the Colombian rider managed to remount and try to chase his way back to his GC rivals.
Up front, Ineos Grenadiers and Visma-Lease a Bike took turns leading the chase, eventually reeling in Paret-Peintre just before the final climb.
Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike) then set a brutal pace to help launch Vingegaard’s attack with 21 kilometers to go, with Lenny Martinez quick to mark his move on the way to the summit.
The duo continued to collaborate until the final kilometer, where the young French rider narrowly edged out his Danish rival to snatch the victory by a wheel length.
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