Richie Porte takes Paris-Nice overall victory

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Richie Porte (Team Sky) stormed to stage and overall victory atop the Col d’Eze on the final day of Paris-Nice. The Australian national time trial champion was streets ahead of second placed Simon Spilak (Katusha) with his time of 20:23. Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) took third while Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) finished fourth.

Yellow jersey Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) put in a valiant effort in defending his lead but saw his advantage swept away in the rain of southern France, finishing 1:39 behind Porte in the end. He dropped to sixth overall.

Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep) did just enough to hang onto second place overall with Spilak eventually claiming third. Rui Costa finished in fourth with second to fourth overall finishing 30 seconds down on Porte.

"Full credit to Tony. I was a little bit nervous going into the day. We threw time away yesterday, Geraint and myself. We were in a fantastic position and to both crash like that; we had a little too much pressure in our tyres yesterday. It wasn’t ideal but for me know to win this it is just a fantastic victory," Porte said.

"It’s one of the iconic races and for me I think this one feels a little bit sweeter than the last one. It was hard, they threw everything they had at us yesterday and to win on the top of the Col d’Eze like the last time it’s incredible."

"Obviously Chris Froome is to come back in. It’s good for our team. We had a rollercoaster season last year and I think we’re back now."

However, the times that mattered were those of the GC riders with Gallopin holding 36 seconds over Porte at the start of proceedings. Two years ago Porte had put close to two minutes into the Frenchman over the same course and although Gallopin rallied he was never in contention, losing all of his lead at the first time check before dropping out the top five by the time he crossed the finish line.

The big early news of the day was that Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) would not take the start. The former race winner was languishing near the bottom of the overall classification after the previous stage and chose not to ride.

Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) was one of the first finishers and set the early pace but that was quickly superseded by Thomas de Gendt. The Lotto-Soudal rider has been in fine form this week, making three successive breakaways and securing himself the mountains classification. He set a benchmark of 21:19 but was eventually surpassed by Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Garmin) and then former world time trial champion Tony Martin with a time of 20:51. An impressive time by the German that would stand until the latter part of the stage.

It was Spilak who burst through fastest at the intermediate time check and Thomas, Kwiatkowski and Rui Costa were all losing ground on the Katusha rider. Porte was on the only rider to better Spilak and when Gallopin came through the check close to 50 seconds down the writing was already on the wall.

Through the second half of the time trial Porte remained consistent, edging further away from Spilak and Rui Costa to finish 13 seconds ahead of his nearest rival. Kwiatkowski salvaged fifth place on the stage, enough to see him take second overall.

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