
The final day of racing at Paris Nice saw the peloton faced with a short but very demanding 115 kilometre long stage starting and finishing in Nice; made even more difficult by the rain and wind. Heading out into the climbs in the surrounding hills, it was a fierce pace from the start, with almost all of the peloton trying to get up the road at one point.
Rotating through the attacks well Søren Kragh Andersen, Nico Denz, John Degenkolb and Andreas Leknessund were all present in small splits but each move came back. Ultimately, it became a race of attrition with riders and groups going out the back over the testing terrain and heading into the last 50 kilometres Kragh Andersen and Leknessund remained in the very reduced peloton of around 25 riders.
On the Côte de Peille the attacks started from the GC contenders. Leknessund fought hard to try and hold onto the wheel of the top five GC contenders but had to let go around four kilometres from the summit. Regrouping with Kragh Andersen and the rest of the chasers, the Team DSM duo worked well for the remainder of the stage, with Leknessund doing a lot of pacing work heading into the finale. Showing a good turn of speed, Kragh Andersen got up from the chasers to sprint to a fine fifth place – after what was a hard day in the saddle. Leknessund also moved up on GC to end the race in a solid 11th overall.
Pos. | Rider | Team | Time | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | YATES Simon | Team BikeExchange - Jayco | 2:52:59 | 60 |
2 | VAN AERT Wout | Jumbo-Visma | 0:09 | 25 |
3 | ROGLIČ Primož | Jumbo-Visma | ,, | 10 |
5 | KRAGH ANDERSEN Søren | Team DSM | 1:44 | - |
15 | LEKNESSUND Andreas | Team DSM | 1:47 | - |
54 | DEGENKOLB John | Team DSM | 17:43 | - |
55 | DENZ Nico | Team DSM | ,, | - |