It is only the early days of the season. He is not the rider he used to be but he might still shine sometimes.
Tamijo wrote:
Thought this was dead nice to find it continued. time to catch up.
Quick question: I notice some rider are young, (23)
Is that new rider added to this season ?
Actually, I do not put the real ages of the riders in the game because I want to control the riders that are considered for the young classifications. I posted an Excel file last season with the attributes and ages of all riders, I may do it again this season.
Jelle Vanendert's career took a big positive turn since we last talked about him. The Belgian has become one of the really top riders in cycling since then. Back in 2014 his form had taken a dip and he could barely get any results. He was far from repeating his 2011 World Championship and several other riders in the Lotto - Belisol squad were getting more attention than him, like Bjorn Leukemans and Robert Kiserlovski. However, the end of that season was quite encouraging as he managed to get a 5th final position in the Vuelta a España and a silver medal in the World Championship in Ponferrada.
2015 was completely different for him and success came very early in the season in the form of a win in the Paris - Nice. It did not stop there as he added podiums in the Liege - Bastogne - Liege, Fleche Wallonne and Giro d'Italia. The podium in the Giro was a breakthrough for him as, even if he was nowhere close to beating Peter Stetina, he proved that he could be a factor if a Grand Tour did not have many time trial kilometers. Late in the season he got the win in the Giro di Lombardia, the first of his monuments, which made him finish 1st in the World Tour rankings.
In 2016 he came short of repeating the win in the World Tour rankings as David Lopez had the edge. However, in terms of wins it may have been an even better season as he got the win in the Liege - Bastogne - Liege, the Fleche Wallonne and the GP Cycliste de Montreal. Before those wins there were doubts as to whether Vanendert was such a good rider in classics but his record now includes 2 monuments and 3 other classics, which is a very good tally. Also, he was again in a podium of a Grand Tour in the Vuelta.
2017 will be tough for him as improving on the results from the last 2 seasons will be difficult and at 32 years old he is not getting any younger. His main targets are to repeat the wins in Liege and in Huy and the Vuelta a España. However, even with his good record Vanendert is still to win a stage race that has a time trial. He has been working on the discipline but this year's route in the Vuelta has a flat time trial in Burgos that will make it difficult for him.
For the third stage in a row it seems quite likely that the sprinters will battle it out at the end of the stage. The race goes south again to finish in the racing circuit of Magny-Cours, where the Grand Prix of France was celebrated for many years. In the route the only difficulty will be the Cote de la Chapelle Saint-Andre but other than giving out a few KoM points it won't be worth much as the climb is only 2.1 kilometers long. The wind that might have spiced things up is not present but the rain will make the day of the riders miserable.
Forming the break was a bit more straight-forward than in previous days and a group of 5 riders formed the break of the day. They were: Linus Gerdemann (BMC), Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto), Guillaume van Keirsbulck (Discovery), Jonathan Castroviejo (Lampre) and Thomas Voeckler (Dimension Data). Gerdemann was the first at the top of the Cote de la Chapelle Saint-Andre, which was 106 kilometers from the finish line. Their gap had grown to 4' 30'' and the peloton had no rush in cutting it down even as Euskaltel, Movistar and Etixx were setting a pace.
The second intermediate sprint was not far from the finish line, in La Machine, with 38 kilometers to go. Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r) was quickest in the sprint ahead of Lloyd Mondory (Etixx) and Kenny van Hummel (LottoNL). Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel) was not too bothered to sprint for the points as he was more interested in the stage wins. Meanwhile, the gap to the break had come down to 2 minutes. The break looked relatively strong but the chasers had everything under control and the terrain until the finish line was very flat.
Euskaltel and Etixx chased hard in the last part of the stage with riders like Jos van Emden (Etixx), Juan Antonio Flecha (Euskaltel) and Danilo di Luca (Euskaltel). They cut the gap to only 20 seconds with 9 kilometers to go so the stage was going down to a mass sprint for the line in Magny-Cours. Lloyd Mondory was still looking for a stage win in France in the early days of the season but could not find it in the first couple of stages. Mauro Finetto (Katusha) did well in the previous stages and was also very close to the front in the final kilometers.
Greg van Avermaet (Euskaltel) was leading the peloton and was the last man for Alexander Kristoff. They had a few riders behind, like Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek), Andre Greipel (Lotto) and Marcel Kittel (Astana). The sprint preparation was very chaotic because there had been a crash with 5 kilometers to go and the peloton broke in 2. Among those that hit the ground were important riders, like Laurens Ten Dam (Cannondale), Joost van Leijen (Giant), Marco Pinotti (Sky) and Cadel Evans (Lotto). With only 60 riders in the front group the GC might be completely different to what we expected after that crash.
Greg van Avermaet was still leading the way with a bit more than 1 kilometer to go. However, Alexander Kristoff would need to do a lot more work than in other stages when Elia Viviani (Euskaltel) was leading him. He still had Giacomo Nizzolo, Andre Greipel and Marcel Kittel behind in a very good position. Meanwhile, Michael van Staeyen (Etixx) was trying to get Lloyd Mondory to the front as the French had lost is positioning when the crash happened. They seemed to be doing a great effort to get back. Nacer Bouhanni was also quite far behind.
Alexander Kristoff again emerged from behind Greg van Avermaet rather late but the rest of the sprinters had also started their sprint quite late. He had a good positioning and was again looking very strong to get another stage win. Giacomo Nizzolo and Andre Greipel were trying to gain on the Norwegian and the German looked especially good as he was gaining on him. Tyler Farrar (Tinkoff) and Marcel Kittel were right behind. The American was in the wheel of Greipel and taking advantage of the speed of the German. Kristoff's rivals were at least a bit closer today.
Tyler Farrar wins in Magny-Cours! That was an impressive sprint by Farrar, who managed to gain a lot of terrain in the last 500 meters of the stage to narrowly take the stage win from Alexander Kristoff, who for most of the sprint looked as winning a third stage in a row. This is Farrar's second win of the season in only a few days of racing. The third position in the stage was for Marcel Kittel ahead of Marcel Kittel and Kenny van Hummel (LottoNL). The sprint was rather chaotic today after the crash and only 47 riders managed to get to the finish in the front group.
There was only one abandon, Christophe Riblon (Cofidis) had to leave the race after the crash. However, among the favorites for the GC only a few riders made it home in the front group: Emanuele Sella (Movistar), Davide Rebellin (Astana), Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto), Mauro Finetto (Katusha) and Tom Slagter (Cannondale). Therefore, some of the most important riders are already out of the battle to take the overall win. It will be interesting whether any of them tries to take a more aggressive stand in the following stages.
The hillier part of the Paris - Nice starts with a tricky stage finishing inn Rive-de-Gier, in the Loire department. The route is not too hard in the first half but the second part of the stage features the climbs to the Cote de Saint-Martin-en-Haut and the Cote de Sainte-Catherine. It should be a stage hard enough so that many of the sprinters will not have a chance but the ones that go better through the hills might make it. It will also be interesting to see whether Euskaltel defend the yellow jersey from Alexander Kristoff.
The break of the day was far stronger than what any team that wanted to control the stage would have deserved. Among the 7 riders in the group we could see Bernhard Eisel (LottoNL), Enrico Gasparotto (Etixx), Stefan van Dijk (Vacansoleil), Stefan Schumacher (HTC) and Simon Gerrans (Trek). They had a gap of 7 minutes at the intermediate sprint in Brindas, with 65 kilometers to go. Meanwhile, BMC and Euskaltel were trying to set the pace in the bunch. The Spaniard team clearly felt that Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel) should be able to go through the climbs with the best.
The first serious climb of the day was Saint-Martin-en-Haut, 49 kilometers from the finish line. Euskaltel was chasing with riders like Rinaldo Nocentini (Euskaltel), Juan Antonio Flecha (Euskaltel) and Zdenek Stybar (Euskaltel) but the gap was still growing, 7' 30'' at the top of the climb. That gave the break a lot of options as the road was very favourable until 30 kilometers from the finish line. Rein Taaramae (Katusha) was collecting a lot of KoM points and could get the jersey from the hands of Sylvain Chavanel (Giant).
At the start of the Cote de Sainte-Catherine, shortly after crossing the finish line for the first time, the gap of the break was still 5' 45''. That practically sealed that one of the riders in the break would get the win at Rive-de-Gier. Enrico Gasparotto was working a lot at the front because he was the virtual leader on the road and if the peloton did not chase hard they would not prevent him from taking over the leader's jersey. Meanwhile, Cannondale and Lotto joined forces with Euskaltel to chase. On the other hand, Laurens Ten Dam (Cannondale) crashed again and it was worse for Taylor Phinney (Discovery) as he had to abandon the race.
The attacks in the group of favorites started with Philippe Gilbert (Vacansoleil). However, it was Rui Costa (Ag2r) and Tom Slagter (Cannondale) that were opening the biggest gap over the group of the leader. Slagter was quite dangerous as he was only a few seconds behind Alexander Kristoff in the GC. The break had 4' 10'' on Rui Costa with 18 kilometers to go, 4' 20'' on Tom Slagter, 4' 45'' on Gilbert and 5' 20'' on the group. Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) was leading the chase but it would probably take riders from different teams to get the attackers back.
Rein Taaramae was leading the race through the top of the climb to Sainte-Catherine, with 13 kilometers to go. He had Simon Gerrans right behind, while Stefan van Dijk and Bernhard Eisel were having trouble to keep up with the front group. There had been attacks in the group of the leader from Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r), Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto), Emanuele Sella (Movistar) and Hubert Dupont (Euskaltel) but none of them too successful. It was still only Rui Costa and Tom Slagter ahead. Elia Viviani (Euskaltel) was trying to bring the attackers back but his pace uphill is not as good as in the flat by a long shot.
Davide Rebellin (Astana) jumped from the group of the leader to try to get to Rui Costa and Tom Slagter and was followed by Emanuele Sella and Peter Stetina (BMC). However, the gaps were really small as Tanel Kangert (Katusha) was chasing hard behind and Cadel Evans (Lotto) was also collaborating. Meanwhile, the riders of the break were starting to mark each other and their gap had fallen to 2' 25'' to Slagter's group and 3' 20'' to the group of the leader. There were also a few other crashes in the descent, including another one for Marco Pinotti (Sky).
Stefan van Dijk and Bernhard Eisel had come back to the front group in the descent towards Rive-de-Gier and were the first to start the final sprint. The Dutch is a very good sprinter and once the climbs were over he had to be considered the favorite to take the stage win in this 5th stage of the Paris - Nice. However, Stefan Schumacher wasn't bad either and he was followed by Enrico Gasparotto and Peter Kennaugh (Tinkoff). In the end the break made it ahead with a comfortable margin, although it would not be enough for Gasparotto to challenge for the yellow jersey.
Stefan van Dijk wins in Rive-de-Gier! The Dutch was the fastest sprinter in the group and as they could not leave him behind in the climb he took the win of the stage easier than expected. It is his first win since he signed for Vacansoleil. The challenge for the stage came from Stefan Schumacher but the HTC had to settle for the 2nd position in the stage as he could not get around Van Dijk. The third position was for Enrico Gasparotto, while the top 5 was completed by Bernhard Eisel and Rein Taaramae. It is the first time that a break makes it home this season but we could see more successful breaks in this Paris - Nice.
Cadel Evans did a great job to bring the attackers back to the group of the leader and in the last kilometer it was Bjorn Leukemans who attacked. He got to the finish line ahead of the pack but was not awarded any time difference. Lloyd Mondory (Etixx) won the sprint in the group ahead of Kenny van Hummel (LottoNL) and Alexander Kristoff. A total of 79 riders managed to get to the finish line in the group of the leader. Among the riders that surprisingly did not make it were Andrew Talansky (HTC), Michele Scarponi (Astana) and Laurens Ten Dam (Cannondale).
The hilly stages have only started and even though for now Alexander Kristoff is still wearing the yellow jersey it looks unlikely that he will hold it for much longer. There are only 21 riders below the 1-minute mark in the general classification and a few of those are sprinters so it will be difficult that they survived. Tomorrow's stage finishing in Fayence should give us a clearer idea of what to expect in the rest of the Paris - Nice.
The key stages of the Paris - Nice start with this 6th stage, which finishes in Fayence. The route is 220 kilometers long and features a very tricky final kilometers. The Col de Bourigaille is not very tough but should make a good filter of riders, while the finish line in Fayence is uphill with a last kilometer that averages more than 9% in gradient. Therefore, a few gaps should appear among the top riders in the GC. The GC riders should make the stage as hard as possible to try to eliminate the sprinters that are still heading the GC.
The first difficulty of the day was the Cote de Bonnieux, which was 185 kilometers from the finish line. There was already a group at the front made of 7 riders, including Sylvain Chavanel (Giant), Peter Velits (Discovery), Ruben Plaza (BMC), Nick Nuyens (Lotto) and Moreno Moser (Sky). They had 1' 10'' over Vincenzo Nibali (Lampre), who was trying to join the break and 2 minutes over the bunch. The start of the stage was very difficult to control and the fact that Velits was in the break would make it difficult for the peloton as he was only 16 seconds behind in the GC.
The break of the day grew even more and a total of 11 riders were at the front of the race for most of the day. As they reached the Cote des Tuilieres, 57 kilometers from the finish line Euskaltel picked up the pace with Hubert Dupont (Euskaltel) and Greg van Avermaet (Euskaltel). Many riders were not prepared for this pace and the peloton broke into 2 pieces, leaving riders like Cadel Evans (Lotto), Robert Kiserlovski (Discovery), Robert Gesink (Ag2r) and Laurens Ten Dam (Cannondale) behind. The gap of the break was 3' 20'' at the top, while the second part of the peloton was losing 5 minutes. With all of those left behind far behind in the GC there was no reason to chase.
The second intermediate sprint of the day was placed in Fayence, just before the start of the climb to the Col de Bourigaille. Peter Velits took the bonus seconds ahead of Moreno Moser and he accumulated 4 in the day. The break had lost Simon Gerrans (Trek) and Vincenzo Nibali (Lampre), who had suffered a puncture so only 9 remained at the front. The group of the leader had not cut the gap further and it was still at 3' 25'' at the bottom of the climb. Euskaltel was doing most of the job but other riders like Michael Matthews (Cannondale) and Davide Rebellin (Astana) were also collaborating.
Mathias Frank (IAM) was the first rider to attack in the Col de Bourigaille but he could not open a gap. However, his teammate Romain Bardet (IAM) attacked again to give the pace continuity. The climb to Bourigaille does not have high gradients and it did not help climbers trying to open a gap. Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel) was still comfortably holding on with the best in the peloton. Meanwhile, the break still had a gap of 2' 15'' and Peter Velits was still the virtual leader of the race. There were no attacks in the breaks so far.
The race was completely broken at the front when they got to the top of the Col de Bourigaille, with 20 kilometers to go. Igor Anton (Cofidis) was first over the top but only had a gap of 10 seconds over 4 other riders from the early break. The group of the leader was 1' 30'' behind. Romain Bardet had made almost the whole of the climb alone with a small gap over the group but had been caught in the last kilometer of the climb. The group of favorites had been barely reduced and even riders like Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r) were struggling to hold on but making it through the top.
The descent had a few flat sections and that did not do any good to the break and they were all caught before they got to the valley. Jerome Coppel (Etixx) attacked in the descent after Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto) had tried it with no luck. However, the leader was the one jumping to get Coppel and under the 10 kilometers mark they had a gap of 10 seconds over the group of the favorites, which was led by Tom Slagter (Cannondale), Emanuele Sella (Movistar) and Nacer Bouhanni. Among those that lost contact surprisingly in the climb was Tejay van Garderen (Trek), who had also lost time in one of the previous stages.
It was expected that Jerome Coppel and Alexander Kristoff did not go anywhere and they were quickly caught. Once they reached the flat it was again the turn for Bjorn Leukemans to try another attack. However, he could not quite open a gap as he was followed by Rui Costa (Ag2r), Emanuele Sella and Nacer Bouhanni. Nevertheless, his attack was very long and one of those riders might give up and generate a gap. Leukemans was one of the favorites for the win in Fayence as he already took the win last year. Among those in the top 10 the only rider that had not stayed at the front was Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar).
There were no gaps opened before the final wall in Fayence and a group of 38 riders were going to battle for the stage win. The usual suspects in this type of finishes were already close to the front at the beginning of the climb and with 600 meters to go it was Rui Costa leading the group. He had Hubert Dupont alongside but Emanuele Sella, Bjorn Leukemans and Mauro Finetto (Katusha) were also close to the front. A small gap was starting to open between them and the chasers that Greg van Avermaet did not like and the Belgian was trying to close it.
Rui Costa wins in Fayence! The Portuguese was by far the strongest in the final meters of the stage and managed to get his first win as an Ag2r rider. He had a good Paris - Nice last season as he took the 2nd place overall but could not get any win in the whole year. On the other hand, he had been caught by a crash in Magny-Cours and is out of the fight for the GC this season. He finished with a gap of 7 seconds on the rest of the riders in the group, which was led by Hubert Dupont. Emanuele Sella was 3rd, while Mauro Finetto and Bjorn Leukemans completed the top 5.
In the end Alexander Kristoff survived the stage and managed to keep the leader's jersey for one more day. It is surprising how he has been keeping up with the best even in stages that should not fit him that much. Nacer Bouhanni also made it to the finish line with the group. Tomorrow's stage will be another one for the puncheurs and another difficulty for Kristoff but if he survived today's stage he could well do it tomorrow again.
The penultimate stage of the Paris - Nice was quite difficult to predict as there is quite a difficult first half, especially with the climbs to the Col de Vence and the Col de L'Ecre. However, the final part of the stage is in a tricky circuit in the surroundings of Biot that does not have any major climbs but is a continuous up and down the hills. Given that profile any outcome is possible, from an early break making it all the way to the finish to a late attack from an outsider or even an uphill sprint in the last couple of kilometers of the race.
Euskaltel could not care less about who got in the break in the first few kilometers of the stage and the group that formed at the front had 13 riders, including Jurgen Roelandts (Sky), Sylvain Chavanel (Giant), Rein Taaramae (Katusha), Sergey Chernetskiy (Vacansoleil), Gregory Rast (Orica), Thibaut Pinot (Etixx) and Tiago Machado (Tinkoff). At the top of the Col de Vence the gap had rocketed to 6' 15'', which was a bit of a worry for the riders in the GC because Roelandts was only 4 minutes behind in the GC. That meant that the pace in the day was going to be higher than expected.
Euskaltel, Lotto and Cannondale were setting the pace at the second 1st category climb of the day, the Col de L'Ecre. Among the riders at the front we could see Zdenek Stybar (Euskaltel), Tom Dumoulin (Cannondale) and Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto). The top was at 111 kilometers from the finish line and the gap had grown bigger to 7' 30'', which made the break quite dangerous, especially considering it was a terrain that did not favour the peloton chasing. Sylvain Chavanel took again maximum points at the top and he almost had the KoM classification in the bag.
The Cote de Gourdon was the last climb of the day and the riders would face a long descent towards Biot from here. They will then have to complete 2 laps around the circuit. Sylvain Chavanel again took maximum points and will accumulate 101 at the end of the day, which will leave him ahead of Thomas Voeckler (Dimension Data). Lotto was the team most worried about the break and they put George Hincapie (Lotto), Chris Sutton (Lotto) and Rohan Dennis (Lotto) to chase. This brought the gap down to 5 minutes and was taking a toll on many riders that were dropping from the back. Jerome Coppel (Etixx), one of the riders still with a chance in the GC, crashed in one of the previous descents.
Euskaltel had put their whole team to chase down the break as they crossed the finish line for the first time. It was also where the 2nd intermediate sprint was placed. They were probably trying to eliminate Jerome Coppel, who had not managed to make it back in the descent and even though he had 3 teammates with him was already 2' 50'' behind the bunch at the time. With 38 kilometers to go he would have a lot more suffering to endure to make it back. The gap to the break was still 2' 55'' so that was going to be a close call for the stage win.
Lauren Ten Dam (Cannondale) was the first rider to try an attack among the favorites but he was not too successful. However, Andrew Talansky (HTC) immediately tried to make the pace stay high and managed to gain a few meters over the bunch. With 15 kilometers to go it was all very close between the riders in the group of the favorites. Meanwhile, Rein Taaramae had gone solo at the front of the race. Thomas Voeckler was chasing 10 seconds behind, while the rest of the break was around 20 seconds back from the leader. The terrain was very well suited to the attacks but it was still difficult to hold on to any kind of lead.
Rein Taaramae was still heading the race and widening his gap with his chasers with 9 kilometers to go. However, it was now Mathias Frank (IAM) chasing down the road. The Swiss was 30 seconds behind and was going to have to push in the descent towards the start of the final hill. Thomas Voeckler was following closely while the rest of the break had already being caught by the peloton. The group of the favorites was losing 1' 10'' against Taaramae. Meanwhile, Jerome Coppel had given up trying to catch back and was already 6' 45'' behind, which made him lose his chances in the GC.
Joost van Leijen (Giant) attacked at the bottom of the final hill but Rein Taaramae and Mathias Frank were too far up the road as they had a gap of 1' 10'' over the bunch. That meant that one of them would take the stage win because it was already too late for the bunch. There were many attempts from riders well positioned in the GC but Danilo di Luca (Euskaltel) and Hubert Dupont (Euskaltel) were very efficient in keeping the pace as comfortable as possible for Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel) without letting any important rider open a gap.
Rein Taaramae was leading the sprint ahead of Mathias Frank as they entered the last 600 meters of the stage. The Estonian was coming from the early break and should have a lot more tiredness accumulated. Joost van Leijen was trailing 40 seconds behind, while Lars Peter Nordhaug (Ag2r) had also opened a small gap over the group of the favorites. Both were far behind in the GC so they were not a threat for the riders fighting for the final podium. The last kilometers were a bit disappointing as no rider could break the control of the race by Euskaltel.
Mathias Frank wins in Biot Sophia Antipolis! It seemed until the last few meters that it was going to be Rein Taaramae taking the stage win but the Estonian could not hold the sprint for long enough and Frank ended up taking the first win of the season for IAM Cycling. It had been a while since he won as he had not done it since last year's Tour de Suisse. Meanwhile, it is the second time that Taaramae misses out on a win as he was also 2nd at Willunga Hill. The third place was for Joost van Leijen, who crossed the line 28 seconds behind, while Lars Peter Nordhaug was 4th, losing 48 seconds.
The main group was led over the line by Philippe Gilbert, 58 seconds after Mathias Frank won the stage. Miraculously Alexander Kristoff survived as leader one more day but not only him but Nacer Bouhanni and Lloyd Mondory are also really close to the front of the race. There is only one more stage remaining but the Norwegian has to be very grateful to his team as the control that Euskaltel is exerting in the race is giving him a rather comfortable race. It will be a bit more difficult tomorrow as the stage is shorter and the climbs are consecutive.
The first European race of the season comes to an end with a short but typically very nervous stage in the surroundings of Nice. The stage is quite hard with as many as 5 categorised climb in the route. However, only the Cote de Peille seemed hard enough to cause trouble to most of the riders. The GC is really tight so any attack from the front 15 riders in the GC could make a difference. It will be interesting to see whether someone can make it count. From the top of the Col d'Eze to the finish line in Nice there are 15 kilometers that will be difficult for any break or solo rider.
The break of the day had already been formed at the first climb of the day, the Cote de Duranus. The group of 7 had riders like Moreno Moser (Sky), Bernhard Eisel (LottoNL), Gregory Rast (Orica), Stefan van Dijk (Vacansoleil) and Thibaut Pinot (Etixx). Moser was quite dangerous for the peloton as he was only 3 minutes behind in the GC. With 94 kilometers to go they already had 3' 30'' on the bunch so he was the virtual leader on the road. Euskaltel was going to have to work to keep the break within range and the stage would probably be tricky.
Astana had put Sergey Firsanov (Astana) to increase the pace at the front of the pack as they had a lot of faith on Davide Rebellin (Astana). Hubert Dupont (Euskaltel) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Euskaltel) were also helping on the chase. This meant that even though the gap was still growing at the Cote de Chateauneuf it was not out of control and at 4' 30''. The rest of the teams should also be making the stage as difficult as possible for the sprinters like Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel) and Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r). The stage was not long and they should start as soon as possible.
The Cote de Calaison was the 3rd categorised climb of the day, all of them 2nd category. The break was still making a good effort but their gap had started to shrink. It was at 3' 35'' with 57 kilometers remaining. Euskaltel and Astana were still keeping the gap manageable. There had not been any attacks among the important riders in the race but there was quite a bit of tension with so many riders within a shot of the final podium. The key part of the stage was getting closer. On the KoM classification Sylvain Chavanel (Giant) had already won it mathematically.
The Cote de Peille was the hardest climb of the day but only Mathias Frank (IAM) attacked in the last kilometer of the climb. Sylvain Chavanel (Giant) tried to go with him but did not have the legs after many days in breaks. The Swiss crossed the top of the climb with a gap of 35 seconds over a peloton led by Andrea Guardini (Astana) and Sergey Firsanov. The terrain between Peille and the Col d'Eze has been a very difficult terrain to control in previous editions. Frank already attacked yesterday to win the stage and was only 30 seconds behind in the GC.
The break got to the bottom of the Col d'Eze, with 19 kilometers to go, with a gap of 2' 15'' over the main group. However, the peloton really started to pick up the pace when Mathias Frank attacked and even though he did not go anywhere there were other attempts to break. Astana and Euskaltel had controlled the group very well so far but it was quite strange that Davide Rebellin had not tried to break from it yet. The lead of Alexander Kristoff seemed as strong as always with only 1 more climb to go in the race. Also, the strong headwind in Eze might make the attacking more difficult.
The pace was a lot higher in the climb to Eze and the peloton eventually closed the gap down to the break. The headwind did make the attacks a lot harder but that did not prevent Mathias Frank to manage to open a small gap again at the top of the climb. Tom Slagter (Cannondale) tried to follow him and crossed the top of the climb 10 seconds behind. The bunch was not far behind, around 30 seconds at the top but the gaps in the GC were so small that it would be enough for Frank to win the overall classification. Nevertheless, they still had 15 kilometers to go from the top of the climb, which was a long way for a solo rider.
Euskaltel did not lose many riders in the climb and could keep up the pace in the descent. There were a few attacks from Davide Rebellin and Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto) but in the end, it was Alexander Kristoff that jumped from the group and closed down the gaps. It has to be said that the form that Kristoff has had in this Paris - Nice was outstanding. They collected Mathias Frank in the midst of the attacks. With 6 kilometers to go it was the turn for Tejay van Garderen (Trek) to attack. He opened a gap of 10 seconds but as he was not a threat in the GC there was not an immediate reaction from the group of favorites.
The group of the favorites did not find a reason to chase Tejay van Garderen and by the time they realized the American had reached the last kilometer of the stage with almost 30 seconds of advantage. Nacer Bouhanni had tried to attack as he only had a few seconds delay in the GC and a win for him in the Paris - Nice would be unbelievable but he did not have any margin. When the sprint was finally started in the group of the leader Bouhanni was leading it with Rui Costa (Ag2r), Robert Kiserlovski (Discovery), Alexander Kristoff and Fran Ventoso (Movistar) following. However, they were fighting for the second place.
Tejay van Garderen wins in Nice! For a 2nd year in a row Van Garderen had a poor Paris - Nice but also for the second year he managed to take the stage win in the streets of Nice. The American benefited from the control that the favorites had on each other to open a gap with only 6 kilometers to go and rider alone to the finish line. He was not given any time difference as the group close the gap while he celebrated his win. It was Nacer Bouhanni that led the group over the line, followed by Nacer Bouhanni, Fran Ventoso and Alexander Kristoff.
In the end the podium of the Paris - Nice was very different to what we expected before the race. Alexander Kristoff took the overall win ahead of Nacer Bouhanni and Lloyd Mondory. All of them benefited from the bonus seconds they got in the early stages. The key moment of the race was the crash at Magny-Cours. That took out many of the riders that should have played a role in the GC and as a side effect probably made controlling the race a lot easier for Euskaltel. There were also other surprising riders in the top 10, like Peter Sagan and Fran Ventoso.
