Vichot wins final Paris-Nice stage

Arthur Vichot (FDJ) took the biggest win of his career on the final stage of Paris-Nice, ahead of Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) and Cyril Gautier (Europcar). Vichot never looked in doubt as he raced by the other riders to seal the victory by a clear margin.

The Frenchman managed to hang onto the other general classification contenders on the tough final climb of the Col d'Eze to keep himself in contention, despite having no teammates to help him. He stayed tucked safely in the group as they tracked down a lone Frank Schleck (Trek Factory Racing), before unleashing his sprint.

Vichot's victory was enough to move him up into third in the general classification, one second ahead of Rojas. The win was also his first in the jersey of the French champion. "It's fantastic to win in the tricolore on the Promenade des Anglais," said Vichot.

"It's like a classic, it was wonderful to win. Of course it is the first time for me in this stage of a race. The general classification hasn't been great for us, but we tried to do something in the stages and I finished in first place today. I'm very happy, it's a good feeling."

There was a bit of carnage at the finish when Peter Velits (BMC) and Tony Gallopin tangled wheels, forcing the Lotto-Belisol rider across the road, which took down a number of riders, including World Champion Rui Costa. The Lampre rider had been hoping to take a stage win here, but found himself thrown into the barriers as a result of the crash. Costa took some time to get back on his bike but was able to cross the line and keep his second place in the general classification

Vichot was on the opposite side of the road when the incident occurred and made it through unscathed. "There was no problem really for me, but there was a problem behind with a crash," he explains. "It didn't stop me winning. Racing is like that, it's Paris-Nice it's a big race and these things happen. Of course, in all the stages you need to be in front at this race. Every second is nervous and everybody is fighting for their place and it's a great special moment for me."

Carlos Betancur (AG2R-La Mondiale) finished safely inside the bunch to become the first Colombian to take that overall victory at Paris-Nice.

How it happened

The final stage of the week was also the shortest one, although it packed a punch with five categorised climbs for the riders to tackle. There were five non-starters for stage eight, including Geraint Thomas (Sky) who crashed on the previous stage. He was joined by his teammate Edvald Boasson Hagen in the list of abandonees, a list that would grow vastly by the end of the day.

It was a fairly straightforward day to begin with for the peloton. It took some time for a break to develop, but finally 17 riders made it off the front at the 24km mark. Of the 21 teams in the race six missed out on a spot in the break, including the AG2R team of Carlos Betancur. Included in the break were Xabier Zandio (Sky), Greg van Avermaet (BMC, Matthew Busche (Trek Factory Racing) and Moreno Hofland (Belkin)

With so many riders in the break, the peloton were cautious of giving them too much room out front and they held the gap at one minute for a long time. The leaders then upped the pace, which resulted in Hofland being dropped and built the lead up to a maximum of 2:40. They worked well together until they hit the penultimate climb of the Côte de Peille, by which stage their lead had fallen back down to a minute.

Sensing the escapees at close range, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) decided to have a go joined by his teammate Lieuwe Westra and Simon Spilak (Katusha). Westra soon sat up though, with Francesco Gavazzi, still out front from the earlier break, ready to help him out. The break was quickly nullified, by which time almost all of the previous escapees had been caught too.

A number of riders tried their luck off the front, the most concerted of these efforts was one from Yuri Trofimov (Katusha). AG2R tried to track him down, but he managed to build up a lead of nearly a minute. That quickly vanished once Movistar took to the front. The Col d'Eze proved to be the downfall of several riders, among them were Nibali, Andy Schleck (Trek Factory Racing) and Zdenek Stybar, who had to wave goodbye to his podium position.

As the peloton neared the top of the final climb of the Col d'Eze, Frank Schleck (Trek Factory Racing) launched an attack. He was soon joined by Spilak, who looked determined to better his 10th place in the general classification. The pair, lead predominantly by Schleck, extended their advantage to around 40 seconds on the descent of the climb. Once again, Movistar took up the task of chasing them down.

With the peloton quickly closing on them, Schleck tried an attack inside the final kilometre, but the pure climbers frame couldn't fend off the advances of the baying pack.

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