Tony Martin secures overall victory at Paris-Nice

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Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) survived another nervous, rain-soaked final stage in the hills of the Côte d’Azur to secure overall victory at Paris-Nice.

Despite a late attack on the Col d’Eze by Spain’s Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), following a offensive ride by Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil) who was the virtual yellow jersey at one point, the 25-year-old German kept his cool and finished in the same time as his closest rivals to add his name to the prestigious lists of Paris-Nice winners.

Ever-aggressive French national champion Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) won the 124km final stage in Nice with another show of panache.

Martin’s victory confirmed his huge stage race potential.

“Some dangerous guys attacked but I had a super HTC-Highroad team on my side and RadioShack and Sky also helped keep the (overall) positions as they were. I was always sure of being able to make it. Today was a fantastic race with no crashes. Everything went really well,” Martin said.

Andreas Klöden (RadioShack) finished second overall at 36 seconds and Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) was third at 41 seconds.

“Both of them were happy to finish second and third”, Martin noted. “For sure, they could have attacked me, but they knew that I was able to follow. They didn’t want to take unnecessary risks. Had they crashed in the descent, their second or third place would have been gone.”

Estonia’s Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) hung onto fourth overall at 1:10 with Sanchez moving past Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale) to take fifth at 1:13 thanks to his attack on the descent of the Col d’Eze.

Voeckler strikes again

Voeckler won his second stage at Paris-Nice with a smile on his face despite the wet and cold conditions.

In the Col de Calaison after 70km, Vinokourov was dropped after Gerdemann also faded. The Kazakh had wanted to win stage 7 on Saturday because it was the anniversary of the death of his friend Andreï Kivilev during the 2003 edition of Paris-Nice. Di Gregorio emerged to take the win but that didn’t stop of trying again.

“Today I was on my usual training roads, I knew every corner of the course”, the Kazakh said. “I tried a big move and I attacked just as planned, but the cold and the rain paralysed me. I got dropped because I didn’t have any strength left. It was better to pull out too because I didn't want to take any risks. I still had the images of Saturday's stage in my mind, when I was close to fall in a ravine. It's better to be reasonable sometimes.”

Only 89 riders finished the stage with a long list of riders preferring to quit the race mid-stage rather than risk crashing on the wet descent of the Col d’Eze.

However Voeckler seemed to revel in the tough conditions.

“I felt the bad weather was exhilarating”, the French champion said. “It pushed me to take some risks. When we dropped Carrara, who I knew was fast in a sprint, I was afraid of Ulissi because he didn’t wince at all and I didn’t know if he’s a good sprinter or not. I went on the front for the descent and I took more risks once Carrara was no longer on my wheel. I don’t like to take risks at every race I do, but when there is the possibility of a win around the corner, it’s worth it.”

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