Paris - Nice, March 13, Stage 7: Nice/Nice *SPOILERS*

Melodeon

Date:Sunday 13th March
Type: Mountains
Distance: 134Km
Start/Finish: Nice/Nice


Stage map:



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Last 5km:



The General Classification after Stage 6:



Preview (© www.letour.com):

Sky ready to maintain Paris-Nice domination

After Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and Richie Porte in 2013 and 2015, Geraint Thomas is ideally placed to keep Paris-Nice a Team Sky property for the fourth time in five years. Still the hardest part for the Welshman could well be the 134 km left in the race, a hilly circuit around Nice including two first category climbs and especially Col d'Eze, on which his former team-mates both sealed their overall victories thanks to the time trials then held on it. Thomas, who crashed out of Paris-Nice in his first race as a team leader in 2014, is warned that he should not take anything for granted. " It's by no means finished", he insisted, aware that a 15 seconds lead over Alberto Contador is never enough, especially in such a short yet gruelling ride as Sunday's. With Russia's Ilnur Zakarin only 20 seconds adrift and title-holder Porte only one second further back, a coalition might form against Sky on the roads of the Nice hinterland. "Contador is a pretty good bike rider! And Richie and Zakarin too. They won huge races. There's still a hell of a long way to go", Thomas admitted. Still his team-mates were really impressive for most of stage 6, setting the pace all day thanks to Nicholas Roche, Ian Stannard, Ian Boswell and Ben Swift, while keeping Sergio Henao close to him in the last climb. They are undisputedly the strongest team in this Race to the Sun. As usual? Contador and Porte, both looking for a third win in Paris-Nice are out to prove the claim wrong.

LIVE TV:
Eurosport 2 - 12.45pm

HIGHLIGHTS:
Eurosport 2 - 9.30pm

velo.2010

Its all kicked off on the last stage! Contador attacked an is up the road with teammates. He has 40 seconds or so on Thomas.

retalivity

Pop goes geraint!

velo.2010

Bleeding Eurosport and their ad breaks! C'mom Bertie...

retalivity

Thomas is gonna keep the yellow methinks...

MPFGLB

Well in the end the 3 favs are on the podium


But Thomas owes his win to his team mates

Not as good a climber as Henao

Melodeon

Feckin' hell, I can't even get to watch a stage live on my day 'off' :mad:

Anyhow, what a finish!

I was sure Thomas was finished, but he (and Henao!) pulled it out of the fire big time.

Big plaudits too to Contador for fighting to the end and making a fine spectacle of the whole thing.

MPFGLB

Also Nicolas Roche ...a key player in the win

Brought down that gap Bertie had from 40 seconds to almost nothing

Melodeon

Yes indeed, Nico was immense this week.

velo.2010

Fair play to Thomas for hanging on. Apparently he had a 54 ring on the front as he expected to chase on the descents. Good sense if that's what they thought would happen.

MPFGLB

velo.2010 wrote: »

Fair play to Thomas for hanging on. Apparently he had a 54 ring on the front as he expected to chase on the descents. Good sense if that's what they thought would happen.

SKY have always a strong plan

Contador was great today ...really mixes it up
Unfortunately for him the SKY team are so strong ...imagine it will be the same at the Tour

velo.2010

Sky have a superstrong team but can still only bring a certain amount of climbers to the Tour - I doubt Roche will be in this year, perhaps on duty at the Giro - as well as making room for the the roulers like Kiryenka (though he can climb well too!) and a specialist like Kwiatkowski (actually he can climb well too!). Guys like Henao, Lopez, Konig, Nieve probably won't make the cut along with Roche.

Sky Team for Tour:
Froome
Thomas
Landa*
Kennaugh
Poels
Kwiatkowski
Kiryenka
Inxausti
Stannard or Rowe*

*Maybe Rowe and Stannard if Landa only does the Giro.

Tinkoff by comparison would love to have an excess of climbers like those above - they have no B team as such. They didn't sign any new talent this year and beyond the 6 or 7 certainties to be in the Tour team, I'm struggling to fill the last couple of places from the 2016 list.

Contador
Majka
Kreuziger
Rogers*
Sagan
Bennati
Tosatto
Hernandez maybe
Kiserlovski maybe

MPFGLB

Sky Team for Tour:
Froome
Thomas
Landa*
Kennaugh
Poels
Kwiatkowski
Kiryenka
Inxausti
Stannard or Rowe*

Well besides starting all that again ....that we had all this last year when I argued against so many on here that Roche would make the Tour team which he did and rode extremely well for SKY

Landa , Kiryenka, Inxausti & Kennaugh are ear marked for the Giro
And none of the 4 are ear marked for the Tour


Landa & Inxausti are recovering from Glandular fever while Kennaugh had a poor performance at last years Tour and already has said he is not riding this year

Both Stannard & Rowe are to ride the Tour all things being well
Nieve is also lined up for the Tour as is Froome, Thomas & Poels

That leaves 3 places for probably Roche, Henao & Kwaitoski

And today stage along wiht last years Tour proved Roche is a very good rouler

D9Male

That was a brilliant stage.

Fair play to Contador, he made the stage really great. He is one of the most exciting riders I have seen. We will miss him when he retires.

Thomas was class also. Digging in and retrieving the yellow jersey from that situation cresting the Eze was a great ride. He was lucky he had the help of his team all day, but he still was doughty.

As a side note, it is funny how different situations can put various different alliances in play in road cycling. Gallopin worked with GT and Henao to save his GC place. Porte worked with Contador to keep the bigger group of favourites at bay so they could get a podium / yellow.

Road cycling is a great sport, and days like that make it brilliant.

Henao was very, very strong on the last two days.

MPFGLB

Yes Henao was so strong...so hard to beat SKY because when they have one rider that isn't strong they have at least 2 more to replace him that is

Contador makes every race exciting ...he really goes for it ...but then again he has always had the ability to deliver...but maybe this year his is beginning to fade

Can't go on forever

he looked rather emotional on the platform as if he kinda knew that giving it his all isn't enough ....Mind you it takes a very strong TEAM to beat him

D9Male

Jeez, I wouldn't be writing him off just yet. Plenty of life left in the old dog. The PN course really suited GT.

MPFGLB

D9Male wrote: »

Jeez, I wouldn't be writing him off just yet. Plenty of life left in the old dog. The PN course really suited GT.

Where did I write him off ??? ...said he is not as good as he used to be...
beaten in 2 stages races so far...never would have happened a few years ago

I also said it takes a strong team to beat him

D9Male

Fair enough, that's true. I think he'll have a massive year.

godtabh

D9Male wrote: »

Fair enough, that's true. I think he'll have a massive year.

He'll end the season in Spain and that will be him done

Leroy42

What do y0u guys think or the effects of the cancellation of the mountain stage. SUrely Bertie would have been aiming to get some additional time in that stage which could have changed the result.

I know, I know, should have, should have etc just asking based on the previous posts questioning whether Bertie has it. I think he probably would have won it had that stage gone ahead

godtabh

Leroy42 wrote: »

What do y0u guys think or the effects of the cancellation of the mountain stage. SUrely Bertie would have been aiming to get some additional time in that stage which could have changed the result.

I know, I know, should have, should have etc just asking based on the previous posts questioning whether Bertie has it. I think he probably would have won it had that stage gone ahead

clearly had a big impact.

Inquitus

Leroy42 wrote: »

What do y0u guys think or the effects of the cancellation of the mountain stage. SUrely Bertie would have been aiming to get some additional time in that stage which could have changed the result.

I know, I know, should have, should have etc just asking based on the previous posts questioning whether Bertie has it. I think he probably would have won it had that stage gone ahead

Who knows, it was only a 3km climb all be it average 8.4% and a couple of really steep ramps, hard to know if it would have played into Contador's hands, he's not known for these sort of punchy finishes.

TheBlaaMan

Contador lost by four seconds; had he cross the line first instead of Wellans, the additional bonus seconds would have seen him win PN. Such are the fine margins. He really looked like he was hurting himself to get away all through the 25km to the finish. Love him or hate him, he really lights up a race.

MPFGLB

Contador clearly better on the climbs to Thomas ...no contest

But i don't think the cancelled stage would have made that much difference to the result as not too steep or long for Thomas who did finish in front of Contador on Saturday

MPFGLB

I think Contador lost the race on the TT ...his wasn't great for him

Majka finished 3 seconds in front of him