Today Paris – Nice comes to an end with the long climb to Valdeblore La Colmiane. The finishing climb is preceded by 4 category 2 climbs, over 160km, with the first climb starting just 7km into the stage.
Through 7 stages the race has progressed pretty much exactly as favorite Lecuisinier and his Festina team would have scripted it. With a lead of 1’22 over Morton entering the stage anything less than a GC victory will be a failure for Lecuisinier. But behind him the next 11 riders are separated by less than 2 minutes so significant GC gains can be made for those on a good day while a bad day could translate into a major drop.
Lecuisinier has a strong lead in the green jersey as does McKenna in the polka dot. But Godoy trails Novak by just 13 seconds for white. Slightly less close is the team competition but Evonik will need to ride solidly to hold their 2’01 lead over UBS and 2’13 lead over ISA-Hexacta.
Today’s stage favorites show are:
A few kilometers in we get the first attack and the quality of riders is the highest we have seen. The first two are Vervaeke and Kennaugh and one of the chasers is KOM jersey holder McKenna but there are a lot of attackers
The peloton doesn’t seem too worried by a big escape and as they start the climb there are 16 riders over a one minute up. They are in two groups. The front four with a gap of 1’33 are Vervaeke and Kennaugh with the Generali duo of Dyball and Ludvigsson.
1’16 clear of the peloton is a second group with 12 riders: Smith Bizkarra McKenna Quintana Vasyliv Budenieks Penko Mamykin Warchol Iturria Sosnitskiy Novikov
Some strong climbers in this group but Festina won’t be too worried as the closest on GC is Iturria at 8’08.
The first climb is 4km at 5% with by far the hardest part in the first kilometer. By one kilometer from the top the groups have merged and they have almost 3 minutes on the peloton as McKenna attacks. If he can take some early points his KOM jersey will be mathematically secure.
Further back Gillett and Vosekalns (6’55 behind on GC) have attacked out of the peloton.
Budenieks overhauls McKenna at the top of the climb to take maximum points.
But Budenieks still trails by 38 points meaning to get the jersey he will need to take all the remaining Cat 2’s and take points at the finish, while McKenna is shut out.
The break passes the first sprint point with no action. The 2 attackers have joined the front so there are now 18 riders, their lead is 4’54 with 143 km to ride.
But the GC teams don’t seem to want to let the break get out of hand and with 135km to go they have brought the lead down to 3’42. Groenewegen doing the work for Aegon.
With 95km to go the situation is about the same, the break has 3’41. They are starting the climb of the Côte de la Sainte-Baume, the second, and longest of the cat 2 climbs. It is 15.6 km at 4.1 %, again the hardest part are the early slopes.
The first 14 km of the climb pass with no action, the breakaway’s lead stays at about 3’50 and a few weak climbers are dropped by the peloton. Then with 1.5km to the top Warchol joins McKenna and Budenieks in attacking for the KOM points.
This time McKenna takes first, he has now officially King of the Mountains in Paris – Nice.
The KOM battle means the break speeds up and when the peloton cross the KOM point the lead has grown to 5’29.
By the start of the next climb, the Col Saint-Raphaël, the lead is down to 4’12 with 66km to go. The climb is just 3.6 km at 5.4%.
At the top McKenna adds some more points to his tally.
with 55km to go for the peloton, the lead is 3’44 and Aegon doing the most work, Tejada, Rucigaj, and Koep on the front. UBS and Rakuten are also chasing along with Aegon.
There is one more small category 2 climb but most of the obstacles, barring the last climb, are behind the riders. There are still 148 riders in the peloton.
23km to go for the break, their lead is 3’37 with the same teams chasing. There are 5km to the start of the final climb.
The break start the final climb, it is 17.4km at 6.2% with the hardest stretches coming from 13km to 10km and in the final 1k. The lead over the peloton is 3’11. Immediately Warchol and Vosekalns attack.
They get a small gap but the rest of the break is right behind them. Behind, eBuddy is contributing to the case for the first time with Majka working. Hayakawa is second wheel in the peloton so they aren’t going that hard yet.
11km for the break and the two attackers are brought back but as a result the break splits, the front group is quickly 40 seconds ahead. Dropping behind in the second group are Ludvigsson, Budenieks, Penko, Mamykin, Iturria, Sosnitskiy, and Gillett
The lead is still just over 3 minutes and the peloton is still 132 riders.
10km for the break and Warchol and Vosekalns try again.
8 km to go and Vosekalns decides to go solo.
The rest of the front group of the break is 25 seconds behind, the Iturria group is over a minute behind them. And the peloton is 3’21 behind Vosekalns.
Volvo now coming to the front of the chase with some serious fire power in the form of Carapaz and Faglum Karlsson
5km to go and Vosekalns has 40 seconds on Warchol, 1’00 minute on a group of 7 chasers and 3’31 on the peloton, who aren’t pushing the pace despite the fire power on the front.
The 7 rider chase group is Vervaeke, Kennaugh, Dyball , Smith, Bizkarra, Vasyliv, and Novikov.
The peloton is down to 43 riders with Carapaz on the front.
3.1 km to go for Vosekalns his lead is 43 seconds over the chase group who have caught Warchol. The peloton is at 3’21.
Stüssi is the first of the team leaders to be dropped. Bizkarra is dropped by the chase group.
The first attack in the peloton comes from Keizer (14th on GC) and Schelling (9th).
2km to go for Vosekalns but Smith is driving the chase and his lead is down to 24 seconds.
Keizer and Schelling have a 21 second lead and Berhane leads a response.
Laengen has been dropped but there are still 39 riders in the main group.
1.4 km to go at the front and Vosekalns has been brought back. Warchol is struggling at the back of the group.
Keizer and Schelling have been brought back and are leading the chase group which is 1’57 behind the front of the race.
The chase group is down to 28 and Tvetcov and Chiarello have been dropped. ISA-Hexacta still have 3 riders in the chase group although Evonik do have Vosekalns out front.
One km to go for the break, Smith still leads. Dyball is in trouble as well as Warchol and Vosekalns looks spent. The peloton is at 1’30 and all the breakaway riders not in the front group, except Sosnitskiy, have been caught.
500 meters to go for the race leaders and the chase group is in site behind but the time gap is still over a minute.
The chase group has split further. Off to the right the white jersey Novak has been dropped and is 31 seconds behind the group in the foreground which includes Godoy who is now in virtual white. The Godoy group, which also includes Galta, Talansky (19th on GC) and Kirsch (16th), is 44 seconds behind the yellow jersey group to the left of the picture. That group is down to 19 riders and Amador (8th) and Roglic (17th) are only just hanging on.
800 meters to go and 5 riders have pried open a lead on the rest of the GC group they are: Lecuisinier, Dombrowski, Morton, Gesink, and Schelling.
Up front the sprint opens up, Smith leads Vasyliv and Vosekalns.
200 meters for the leaders, Smith still leads but Vasyliv and Vosekalns are neck-and-neck for second. Kennaugh has separated from Vervaeke and Novikov for fourth but doesn’t look like he will have enough road to challenge for the podium.
Behind Sicard, Olivier and Hirt have bridged across to the front 5. Alarcon needs 5 seconds to catch Sicard for a podium spot, right now he losing is a few seconds.
Smith wins it, King Power take the first and last stage of Paris – Nice.
Vosekalns beats Vasyliv for 2nd. Evonik will hope his time gain is enough to offset their losses on other riders.
300 meters behind Lecuisinier goes on the offensive. Warchol is about to be swamped. Behind Lecuisinier is Dombrowski, Morton, Dyball, Gesink, Sicard, Olivier, Schelling, Alarcon, Hirt and Sosnitskiy.
Kennaugh takes 4th.
Lecuisinier blows by the last breakaway riders to take 5th and secure the overall GC.
Vervaeke hangs on for 6th, Dombrowski is 7th. But he needs time gaps to move up in the GC. Novikov gets 8th, Olivier, 9th and Sicard 10th.
Alarcon 11th, he doesn’t gain any time. Morton fades to 12th, not great from him but no time losses, he holds 2nd in the GC. Then Warchol and Gesink.
The first time gap among the GC riders as Schelling beats Dyball for 15th but loses 36 seconds on the first GC group.
Hirt fades badly in the final meters and struggles home in 17th losing 51 seconds. He is followed by Sosnitskiy. Then Berhane, Keizer, Quintana, Mamykin and Meintjes in 22nd. That group loses 1’08 in the GC battle.
Amador and Godoy are in the next group 1’33 behind the Lecuisinier group. Novak is 45 seconds behind this group and will lose the white jersey.
So the battle of Festina vs the field goes to Festina as they take the yellow and green jerseys and 3 stages. Godoy takes white on the last day while McKenna was dominant in the KOM competition.
In the GC not a lot of changes. Olivier is the biggest winner moving from 11th to 7th. Dombrowski moves up 1 place to 6th. Hirt the biggest loser dropping from 6th to 9th while Amador drops from 8th to 11th.
Finally, Vosekalns’ gains prove enough to offset the losses by his teammates and Evonik hangs on to the team jersey by 27 seconds over ISA-Hexacta and 1’18 over UBS.
Paris - Nice 
