Henao wins Paris-Nice as Contador comes up just short

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Never say never again. For the second year in succession, Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) launched a late offensive on the final day of Paris-Nice, and for the second year in succession, he fell just short, as Sergio Henao (Team Sky) held on to win the overall title by just two seconds Sunday.

David de la Cruz (Quick-Step) claimed the stage victory in Nice in a two-up sprint against Contador, which ultimately denied the Trek man the bonus seconds that would have given him the third Paris-Nice title of his career.

Just 115 kilometres in length and with five climbs on the menu, the final stage of Paris-Nice lent itself to Contador's particular brand of all-out aggression, and though his 31-second deficit at the start of a day was a daunting one, another Fuente De-style remontada suddenly seemed on the cards when he attacked with 52 kilometres to go on the Côte de Peille.

Contador's attack came after his lieutenant Jarlinson Pantano had set a brisk tempo on the upper slopes of the climb. Although Henao and Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) were lined up on Contador's wheel, they were unable to match his fierce acceleration, which tore the yellow jersey group asunder. Contador picked off the remnants of the day's early break as he rode towards the summit of the Peille, and swooped down over the other side as part of a new 14-man group that included De la Cruz and Michael Matthews (Sunweb).

Henao crested the summit 40 seconds down on Contador, meaning that the Spaniard was the race leader on the road, and at that point, his situation looked grave for the Colombian national champ. The yellow jersey group eventually swelled to 23 riders on the descent, however, and Henao's teammates David Lopez and Sebastian Henao helped to keep Contador's lead stable on the approach to the final climb, the Col d'Eze.

Once on the Col d'Eze, Contador was immediately out of the saddle, bobbing from side to side in familiar style, laying down a tempo that only De Le Cruz and Marc Soler (Movistar) could follow. Behind, Henao's deficit yawned out towards a minute and he was forced to do the bulk of the pace-setting in the yellow jersey group with Martin, Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) poised on his rear wheel.

A brace of attacks from Richie Porte (BMC Racing) did little other than disrupt the rhythm of the yellow jersey group, though Contador finally began to betray signs of struggling near the top of the Col d'Eze. When Soler accelerated, Contador left him to do it, preferring to tap out his own rhythm. Contador and De la Cruz crested the summit 10 seconds down on Soler but 50 seconds ahead of Henao.

With 15 kilometres remaining, Contador remained the provisional leader, and when he picked up two bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint in Eze and then caught Soler shortly afterwards, it seemed that all the momentum was with him.

The shallow descent, however, was more conducive to the large chasing group behind, and though Henao no longer had any Sky teammates with him, he caught a sizeable break when Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) began to take lengthy turns on the front. Suddenly, Contador's advantage began to narrow once again.

By the base of the descent, it was clear that, like last year, Paris-Nice was going to be decided by single-digit figures, as Contador's lead dropped to 30 seconds. Contador pressed on alone with two kilometres to go, eager to pick up the maximum 10-second time bonus for the stage win, but, crucially, De la Cruz managed to bridge across shortly before the flamme rouge.

In a breathless final kilometre, there was no time for tactical finesse. Contador led into the finishing straight and, hardly surprisingly, was beaten in the two-up sprint by De la Cruz. He didn't have to wait long to learn his fate. 21 seconds later, Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) led the yellow jersey group home, meaning that Henao salvaged his yellow jersey by a mere two seconds. Dan Martin finished in the same time to seal third place overall, 30 seconds down.

Contador, winner of Paris-Nice in 2007 and 2010, could only smile wanly as he realised what had happened. "It's really a shame," he said shortly afterwards. "I attacked from a long way out but it was a little too far before the finish line. But it was a beautiful race and I'm happy to have played a part in that. I didn't win but I'm glad. That's the way I am. I have to try something, I can't be content with sitting back. I have to take risks."

How it unfolded

The pace was unrelenting from the very outset, and as a consequence, it took some time for an early break to form. Not surprisingly, king of the mountains and aggressor-in-chief Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) was to the fore, leading a small group over the Côte de Levens, which had swelled to 24 riders – including De la Cruz – by the second climb, the Côte de Châteauneuf.

The escapees established a maximum lead of 3:40, before first Quick-Step and then Trek-Segafredo began to peg them back. Such was the tempo laid down by Trek that the peloton split briefly on the third climb, the Col de Calaïson, before regrouping on the approach to the Côte de Peille.

It was soon clear that Contador was not about to settle for a podium place and a clutch of WorldTour points. With Pantano pulling on the front, the timing of Contador's offensive on the Peille caught nobody by surprise, but its ferocity still left the rest of the podium contenders reeling. He would spend most of the final 50 kilometres of the race in the virtual overall lead, only to be denied at the death.

David de la Cruz, meanwhile, rode intelligently and assuredly to stay with Contador on the Col d'Eze and then outpace him in the sprint to take the stage honours.

"When I saw that Alberto was there, I tried to stay with him because I know him and I know he never gives up until the finish line," De la Cruz said. "I suffered a lot but I managed to stay on his wheel. When I saw they weren't catching us, I started to think about winning the stage."

Henao's victory is the fifth by a Sky rider in six years after wins by Bradley Wiggins (2012), Richie Porte (2013 and 2014) and Geraint Thomas (2016). It is also the biggest win of Henao's career, which has twice been interrupted due to anomalies in his blood profile.

His Sky team withheld him for a period in 2014 pending internal testing, and then the UCI opened a biological passport case against him in April of last year before dropping the case a month later. In 2014, Sky stated that it would publish the findings of a Sheffield University study into Henao's blood profile, believing the anomalies were due to his living and training at altitude in Colombia, but the pledged peer-reviewed paper has thus far failed to enter the public domain.

"This is the greatest victory in my career and to win it like this at the last metre is simply unbelievable," Henao said. "It was tough, but I didn't ask myself any questions. I knew I had to suffer until the last minutes but I had to do it for myself and for Colombian cycling."

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