Simon Yates wins Paris-Nice stage 7

Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) moved into the leader’s yellow jersey at Paris-Nice, after a cold and torrid stage of climbing and descending in the Alpes Maritimes saw him solo to a lone stage win at La Colmiane.

“It was a very difficult stage,” Yates said. “There was never a straight bit of road, and it was twisting and turning on really difficult terrain. Normally, I don’t like to sit at the front, I prefer to sit back and relax, but today was one of those days that you really needed to be there."

Yates, riding his fifth Paris-Nice, made the decisive move a little more than four kilometres from the finish line on the 16-kilometre first category ascent to the remote ski station, after overnight race leader, Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) finally wilted with six kilometres left to race.

With the Spaniard out of the running, all of France had high hopes for Julian Alaphilippe, who briefly, was race leader on the road. But it was short-lived. The Frenchman, for all his efforts, was eventually cut adrift after BMC’s Dylan Teuns accelerated in pursuit of Yates and Jon Izagirre, of Bahrain-Merida.

“We started out hoping for the stage win,” Yates said, “but in the position that we were in on the overall, the GC was always a possibility. But there were a lot of guys who were ahead of me, so first we wanted the stage and then afterwards, we went for the GC. It all played out really well on the final climb, and now I’m in the yellow jersey.”

As Yates and Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) rode clear, Alaphilippe cracked, losing over two minutes to stage winner Yates in the final three kilometres and tumbling to ninth overall.

“I wasn’t very aware of what was happening behind me once I’d attacked, but I knew the time gaps. Izagirre and I really rode hard, until about two kilometres to go, when there was some cat and mouse and he sat up a little bit. I wasn’t really confident about taking him to the line for a sprint, so that’s why I decided to attack.”

Meanwhile, Team Sky’s hopes for overall victory - still alive when the peloton left the Promenade des Anglais on Saturday morning, despite Wout Poels’ crash on the road to Vence - faded a little further after Sergio Henao struggled to follow Yates and Izagirre on the road to La Colmiane.

“We’re a bit disappointed,” said Sky sports director Gabriel Rasch as a mud-spattered Henao, now 57 seconds behind Yates, warmed down nearby. “It was a super hectic stage.”

“Sergio and David de la Cruz group’s split on the big descent in the middle of the stage and they had to use a lot of energy to get back. In the finish, Sergio paid for that.

“The weather, I think, was definitely a factor,” Rasch said, “it was such a horrible day.”

But with the top five all within 30 seconds of the race lead, Rasch remained quietly optimistic that Henao could still be in the mix. “Tomorrow we’ll see. From previous years, we know that a lot of things can happen on that stage. It’s going to be another hectic day.”

How It Unfolded

As a chilly rain fell on the Nice seafront this morning, there was talk of possible snow falling at the ski station finish. In the end, that didn’t materialise but cold weather and heavy showers made for a tough and gruelling stage for the peloton.

There were four non-starters, including former race leader and stage 1 winner, Arnaud Demare, and also Ian Boswell of Katusha. By the end of the day, after a further 13 riders abandoned, there were just 114 of the original peloton of 154 remaining.

The day’s break came together quickly and had the mark of real quality, with eight riders slipping away over the Cote de Gattieres, the first recognised climb after just 10 kilometres.

Moving clear were Rory Sutherland (UAE Team Emirates), Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale), Alessandro de Marchi and Nicolas Roche (BMC Racing), Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Amael Moinard (Fortuneo-Samsic) and Jesus Herrada (Cofidis).

After an opening 80 kilometres punctuated by a series of high profile abandons, including those of Dan Martin, Alexander Kristoff, Koen de Kort and Julien El Fares, the break’s lead hovered at around three minutes.

But on the descent of the Col Saint Raphael, the peloton split, with Henao and Tim Wellens in the second group, and the race finally began in earnest as Yates’s Mitchelton Scott team moved to the front with Bahrain-Merida.

The break’s impetus was definitively lost with 30 kilometres to race when Pantano and De Marchi crashed heavily as they took a slick left-hand bend. Although the Colombian was quickly back on his bike, it took De Marchi several minutes to climb out of the ravine and remount to finish the stage.

With only three riders — Gallopin, Moinard and Roche — still clear, the race came together on the final climb, with AG2R La Mondiale’s leader the last of the break to get caught.

It remained a large group into the final kilometres, but eventually, Sanchez, expertly shepherded by teammates Michael Valgren, Omar Fraile, and Jakob Fuglsang, couldn’t hold the pace and finally slipped back with six kilometres remaining.

That was the signal for Yates’s teammate, Roman Kreuziger, to further tighten the screw. It was enough to tip Alaphilippe over the edge and proved also to be the signal for Yates to make his decisive move with just over four kilometres to go.

Izagirre was the only rival to react, but in truth, he never looked at ease with Yates’s pace and a further acceleration from the British rider, a kilometre and a half from the line, was too much for the Czech.

Now Yates will face a nervous final stage, with Bahrain-Merida duo, Ion and Gorka Izagirre breathing down his neck. With Tim Wellens and Dylan Teuns also within half a minute of the yellow jersey, Yates isn’t taking anything for granted

“The last stage is always difficult,” he said. “I’ve raced Paris-Nice five times now so I know that it’s a difficult stage. If you look at the GC for the last few years, the race has been won and lost with really small gaps in the GC.

“So I expect the same tomorrow – I know we will have to be ‘on’ it,” he said. “But the team looked after me perfectly all day. I was never wasting energy and I think that really made a difference in the finale today. So I’m confident for tomorrow.”

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