The last stage of Paris-Nice 2016 was quite exciting till the end, especially thanks to Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) who tried once again to get rid of his competitors in the hilly back-country of Nice but he finally ended at 4 seconds from Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) in the general classification. The stage victory was for Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) who thus showed off the colours of Lotto-Fix ALL on the finish line in Nice.

The summary of the 7th stage of Paris-Nice 2016 - Nice > Nice

It was a short stage, of 134 kilometers, with start and finish on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice which was on the programme of this last day of Paris-Nice 2016 today, with no less than 6 difficulties in this relatively short distance.

After about ten kilometers in the race we saw today's breakaway go off and since Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) was one of the riders in this breakaway, it was not surprising to see Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie) in it as well, for the 3rd day in a row, because the Canadian rider knew that the Belgian rider could take away the polka dot jersey of the King of the mountains classification from him this last day of the race. In addition to these two competitors for the King of the mountains classification, we also found Matteo Bono and Tsgabu Grmay for Lampre-Merida, Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal), Cyril Gautier (AG2R La Mondiale), Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE), Robert Kiserlovski (Tinkoff), David de la Cruz (Etixx-QuickStep), the young Odd Christian Eiking (FDJ), Jesus Herrada Lopez (Movistar Team), Tanel Kangert (Astana), Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale), Fabio Felline and Gregory Rast for Trek-Segafredo, Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Bram Tankink (Team Lotto NL-Jumbo), Oliver Naesen (IAM Cycling) and Chris Anker Sörensen (Fortuneo-Vital Concept).

On top of the first climb, the Côte de Duranus which was taken the other way around compared to yesterday's stage, Antoine Duchesne took the precious points for his polka dot jersey, ahead of Thomas de Gendt and 3 minutes ahead of the peloton led by Team Sky these 19 breakaway riders thus started the descent.
In the climb of the Côte de Levens the breakaway was joined by Yury Trofimov (Tinkoff) and later on also by Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) and Sep Vanmarcke (Team Lotto NL-Jumbo) and it was again in the order Duchesne / De Gendt that the breakaway arrived on top.

Matt Brammeier (Dimension Data) was the last rider to join the breakaway, before it gets on top of the Côte de Châteauneuf where Antoine Duchesne shows that he's still not satisfied with his points capital in the King of the mountains classification and he thus again takes the points ahead of De Gendt. He thus has 71 points versus 44 for his competitor De Gendt. Knowing that arriving on top first on the next 3 climbs would allow to collect 27 points, the battle was not over yet for the Canadian rider because his Belgian competitor could still equal his score!

On the Col de Calaison Antoine Duchesne thus again takes the points ahead of Thomas de Gendt when the peloton arrives on top with a delay of 3'35". Even though the mission was thus accomplished for Duchesne he was not the first to lose contact with the breakaway group in the climb of the Côte de Peille. Indeed, Vanmarcke and Rast get dropped when Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) attacks while Tanel Kangert is at the initiative of a small group getting away from the breakaway group, with Gautier, Wellens, Grmay, de la Cruz and Herrada.

Alberto Contador continues to increase his gap on the yellow jersey (Geraint Thomas [Team Sky]) and on his way to the breakaway group he finds his two team mates Kiserlovski and Trofimov as well as Antoine Duchesne and Matteo Bono. Despite the help of his two team mates, Alberto Contador, who increased his gap up to one minute on the group with Thomas, loses time on the group led by 4 riders of Team Sky and before the Col d'Eze the Spanish rider was taken back again.

In this climb, Contador attacks again, first alone and in a second time by joining Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) who also tried his chance but they don't really manage to get away. In the mean time, at the head of the race Tim Wellens gets away halfway of the climb. From the yellow jersey group Alberto Contador attacks again, this time accompanied by his team mate Rafal Majka and while several riders join them, among whom Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team), this is not the case for the yellow jersey. This small group gets back on Wellens and at 13 kilometers from the finish, there's a remaining trio ahead, with Contador, Porte and Wellens, with a 30 seconds gap on Geraint Thomas, enough to put Contador virtually in yellow.

At 2 kilometers from the finish this gap is however down to only 8 seconds when Geraint Thomas attacks from his group to continue the chase alone. The leading trio continues towards the finish line and Tim Wellens sprints off at the right time to win the stage, crossing the finish line one second ahead of Contador and Porte. Geraint Thomas crosses the line in 11th position with a delay of 5 seconds. Seperated for 15 seconds in the general classification before this stage, the 5 seconds gap at the finish and the 6 bonus seconds are not enough for Contador to beat Thomas who wins the race for 4 seconds!

The final classifications of Paris-Nice 2016

The stage classification of the 7th stage Nice > Nice

Here's the top 10 of this stage:

1/ Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) - 3h16'09"
2/ Alberto Contador (Tinkoff)
3/ Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team)
4/ Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) - +0'05"
5/ Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE)
6/ Arnold Jeannesson (Cofidis, solutions crédits)
7/ Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida)
8/ Jesus Herrada Lopez (Movistar Team)
9/ Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale)
10/ Jon Izaguirre (Movistar Team)

The final general classification of Paris-Nice 2016

Here's the final general classification of Paris-Nice 2016:

1/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - 27h26'40"
2/ Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) - +0'04"
3/ Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) - +0'12"
4/ Ilnur Zakarin (Team Katusha) - +0'20"
5/ Jon Izaguirre (Movistar Team) - +0'37"

Points classification

No changes at the lead of the points classification where the green jersey is won by the Australian rider who spent most of the week in the yellow jersey, Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE):

1/ Michael Matthews (Oria-GreenEDGE) - 53 points
2/ Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) - 23 points
3/ Ben Swift (Team Sky) - 22 points
4/ Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team) - 18 points
5/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - 18 points

King of the mountain classification

In the King of the mountains classification, Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie) was forced to be present in today's breakaway for the third day in a row to defend his jersey from Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal).

1/ Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie) - 78 points
2/ Jesus Herrada Lopez (Movistar Team) - 51 points
3/ Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) - 49 points
4/ Arnaud Courteille (FDJ) - 20 points
5/ Evaldas Siskevicius (Delko Marseille Provence-KTM) - 18 points





All photos in this article are © A.S.O. / G. Demouveaux

The video summary of the 7th stage of Paris-Nice 2016

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice | Paris-Nice 2016

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