Pre-Tactics
It is the last stage before the final mountain TT at Col d'Eze tomorrow, so anyone who are looking for some final success, will be making a race today. We'll have lots of agendas for the stage. First of all we need to protect Roche's secondplace, and if possible, cut down some seconds on Nibali's lead. We'll also have Edvald fighting to beat Sagan in the points classification, where he's only one point shy.

Furtheremore i've got the chance to ride for my own personal success, so i'll be disappointed if i'm not in today's breakaway. My part in the breakaway will also work as a tactical gain, if Roche and the other favorites will try to shake off Nibali in the end.

Before race start i placed myself very near to the front, in case people wanted to slip away early. It proved to be a good idea. After a few kilometres Geschke and Paolini went off and made the gap, but they were soon followed by Martin, Jeannesson and nobody else but myself.


We quickly caught Geschke and Paolini and built up a fine gap to the pack. But we couldn't stay away by ourself, since four riders broke away from the bunch and caught us. The frontgroup now consisted of 9 riders.


Astana wasn't very happy to let so many riders get away and worked hard to minimize the gap. They held on for quite some time, but ended up realizing that it was a waste of energy trying to reel us back in.


Jeannesson was the best placed rider in the general classification, 8'08 behind Nibali, so the breakaway wasn't really any threat to the gc. The full list of riders now heard: L. Paolini, S. Geschke, A. Jeannesson,
T. Martin, S. Puccio, C. Sarmiento, A. Malori, M. Bouet and G. Izagirre.


Astana still held onto the front of the bunch, but the gap to the front group grew bigger every kilometre. Near the first sprint, with about 160 kilometres to go, the gap was already more than five minutes.


Izagirre and Bouet fought hard for the mountain points and had several battles in the front group. Bouet though got out as the main winner, since he had one more point than Izagirre by the end of the stage.


I'm in really good shape, and in the last days i've been feeling quite good on the climbs. But i knew that some of the guys in the breakaway were very good climbers, so i was a little nervous and rode quite cautious when we first hit the main climb of the day.


At the very top, Bouet and Izagirre rode for the mountain points, but Jeannesson actually went after them. Fortunately he was only interested in the mountain points as well. Quite peculiar to start so late...


The gap had reached its maximum with 80 kilometres to go. 9 minutes was apparently too much for Movistar to overcome. They sent the whole team to the front, eyeing to protect Costa and Visconti's top 10 spots.


About 25 kilometres from the finishline, the most unthinkable and feared scenario happened. Roche crashed!


The Irishman quickly got help from a neutral service car, and luckily looked allright to get back on his bike again.


Every teammate, except Trentin and Boasson, immediately fell back to help Roche back into the pack. He had already lost about a minute on the pack, and unfortunately the pace up front was now near its highest.


At the same time, with 20 kilometres left, Martin, Jeannesson and Sarmiento got away from the front group. With Martin up front, i knew i had to catch them quickly if they shouldn't make the final cut. Therefore i closed the gap on my own and just managed to get into Sarmiento's wheel, with Izagirre getting a free ticket just behind myself.


Leaving Paolini and Geschke behind ourselves seemed like a dream scenario. But still it seemed as if only Martin and myself were willing to take turns in the front. The gap therefore didn't grew much.


When we turned left onto the beachside of Nice with 10 kilometres to go, everything was united again. It was only a question of time before the first contra move would settle in. We had more than four minutes to the pack, so the stage victory was to be decided in this group!


Roche and the guys had just caught the pack with a huge effort from the boys, helping Roche up again without causing him any unnecessary pain. But then hell arrived...

Two Lampre riders crashed in front of Cataldo, who had Roche just behind himself. There were no time to avoid anything. Cataldo went down, and so did Roche! They were both in pain, and Cataldo was almost ready to abandon the race. Roche was riding on sheer adrenaline now and desperately carried on, on his own...


While there was panic in the back of the pack, I was fighting my own battle up front. With about 6 kilometres to go, Jeannesson and Sarmiento attacked from the front group, while crossing the Paillon river.


It took quite a while before Roche had any teammates to help him back. Therefore he had to do all the hard work on his own, while being potentially injuried from his two horrible crashes. This was not quite the prelude he wanted for tomorrow's decisive mountain time trial.


There was some confusion in the frontgroup, on who had to ride Jeannesson and Sarmiento back. I knew we didn't have time for waiting, so i felt it necessary to take the front by myself...


Going into the final 3 kilometres, Jeannesson and Sarmiento were reeled back into the 9 man group. Unfortunately i used quite some energy at the front, with only a very little amount of help from Geschke.


No one wanted to take the front from there, and to avoid any contra moves, the pace had to be quite steady. I had faith in my sprint, but really didn't have the best starting position, with my possibly biggest opponents Paolini and Geschke in my wheel. The sprint had started!


Paolini quickly came at high speed on the inside near the banner. Two Italians side by side. One old, one young. Who was strongest?


We were so close to the finish, and yet nothing was decided yet. Paolini and myself were at the front, but also Geschke and Jeannesson was quite close to us. Did we start too early?


I slowly began to lose speed when nearing the finishline, while Paolini seemed to get the gap. Did i lose the victory?


Hands in the sky for Paolini! The old Italian outran me both tactical and by strength. Luckily i managed to keep Jeannesson behind me, but i would really have liked to see myself riding over that finishline in first...


A little more than 3 minutes after Paolini, Sagan rode past the finishline in front of Degenkolb and Edvald. With no points at tomorrow's mountain time trial (except for the winner), this settles the points classification in Sagan's favor. Edvald got close, but it was not enough in the end.


I lost the stage victory and Edvald lost the points classification, but the saddest thing today was Roche's big time loss. 4 minutes and 13 seconds did he lose to race leader Nibali! He really fought to minimize his loss, but his two crashes really took the strength out of him. Also Cataldo who was in 8th ahead of the stage, lost an overwhelming 16'36 to Nibali...

I must admit that there was quite silent in the teambus after the stage. Everyone had done a massive job, but it all seemed to have no purpose. Roche tried to hide his tears when congratulating me on my secondplace. It was very tough for him. Fortunately he hasn't got any fractures, but it will for sure hurt tomorrow.

Otherwise i'm still glad on my performance today. I think i made the right moves, even though i maybe worked a little too much at the front. It isn't easy to have many eyes on you, especailly after my victory in Australia, when most riders know my name now. They expect me to take the front if somebody takes off, and that might be the reason why i lost to Paolini today (not to underestimate his victory!). Tomorrow's stage will be for the climbers and the gc-riders, so i'll just have to get through and support my teammates.

Pre-Tactics
We've come to the mountain time trial - The last stage of this year's Paris - Nice. Unlike the tradition, we rode to Nice yesterday, and have moved further up towards the Col d'Eze for today's last stage. Our biggest hopes, Roche and Cataldo, are slightly injuried after yesterdays crashes, so only a little miracle will make them compete for the stage win. My own agenda will be to get through the stage in a nice pace, so i can cheer for the guys when they reach the finishline.

Dropping from 8th to 112th at yesterdays dramatic stage, Cataldo was the first man from our team to leave the startblock. Unfortunately he never got into the right rhythm and finished in 57th position.


Former world champion Tony Martin was an outsider for today's victory, but the climb was a little too steep for him. He ended 36th.


As we broached the better half of the general classification riders, i had to set off as well, ready for 10 kilometers steep French pain.


There were tons of spectactors on the climb, cheering for the every rider. It really gave me an extra motivation to take on this final stage, and give myself a little more. Through the first intermediate checkpoint, i was in 23th, 38 seconds behind provisional leader Tanel Kangert.


I was more than well-done when i crossed the finishline on the top of the Col d'Eze. Tanel Kangert, the leading rider, had riddden the course in 19'11, which was a time i wasn't even near. I rode the 9,7 kilometres in 20'25, a little more than a minute down on Kangert.


Normally Edvald is one of our best riders when talking about time trial specialists, but as Tony Martin, he was too heavy for such a steep climb. He ended in 37th, one place down on Tony Martin.


Kangert sat in the hotseat for a long time, but when the real favorites eventually finished, he slowly dropped down. The first to overtake the hotseat was Van Den Broeck, being only one second faster.


With hopes about regaining time today, Roche took on today's stage with his head held high. But clearly Roche suffered from his two crashes yesterday. He finished 7 seconds down on Van Den Broeck in 4th, but at the end of the day he was dropped to a somewhat disappointing 15th.


Laurens Ten Dam was the first rider to better Van Den Broecks time. He rode over the finishline in 19'09, 2 seconds better than the Belgian.


But Ten Dam's time in the hotseat was short. Only minutes after finishing, Quintana bettered his time with 3 seconds, in 19'06.


Somewhat surprising, Ivan Basso rode a great time trial today. He hasn't shown much in the race, but certainly made a good impressionen today. He rode in exactly the same time as Quintana.


But the biggest surprise today was probably Monfort. With the Belgian having quite a bad spring until now, we really didn't expect much from him, but nevertheless he smashed Quintana off the hotseat with a second, and moved right into provisional first with the time 19'05!


There now only remained the final three podium candidates. Kwiatkowski, Costa and Nibali. Nibali's overall victory seemed quite secure, but the stage win was still wide open, especially for Kwiatkowski. And he didn't disappoint! With a time 15 seconds faster than Monfort, he was now a really hot candidate for the win.


Costa couldn't do much in the top lead to secure his second place, but nevertheless got a very decent time 17 seconds down on Kwiatkowski. Therefore Kwiatkowski moved up to 2nd in the general classification, while Costa still held onto his podium sport in 3rd.


Nibali seemed flying! At the checkpoint he took a comfortable lead on Kwiatkowski by a few seconds, while he was close to catch Costa through most of the course.


And he left us no doubt! Nibali flew past the finishline, knowing he had secured his overall victory together with the stage. He was no more than 11 seconds faster than Kwiatkowski, in the time 18'39. A deserved winner for both the stage and the general classification!

It has been a hard and difficult race, with high pace and some really bad weather. That's something which really takes the strength out of you! I've been doing a lot of work by protecting first Edvald and then Roche, and i think i've done quite a good job that i can be able to look positively back on. Of course the main thing that i'll take home from France is my second place on yesterdays stage, which i am really proud of. What about that next year i'll swap it with a win!

I'm nearing the end of my first peak in the season. I've only got one race left in this early spring, and that is the Milano San Remo! Just hearing the name of this race gives me goosebumps... See you there!