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.
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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.
How It Unfolded
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/paris-nice-2018/stage-7/results
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