Two-time Tour winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) has his sights set on overall victory in the long-distance Paris-Nice race after another show of force. The Slovenian won the seventh stage, finishing at the 1,678 m high Col de la Couillole and continued to extend his lead in the battle for the yellow jersey.
The 24-year-old goes into the final stage on Sunday twelve seconds ahead of Frenchman David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Tour Champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) from Denmark is third (+0:58 minutes). The order of the top three in the overall classification was identical to the day’s result on Saturday: Pogacar pulled away decisively from his two opponents in an exciting three-way battle a few meters from the finish line.
“We just drove full throttle from zero to the end. At the beginning of the final climb we were actually already completely at the limit”, said Pogacar wearily.
Schachmann no longer at the start because of a cold
The stage was extremely demanding: the last 15.7 km led up to the summit with an average incline of 7.1 percent. After all, the field of riders started the stage with an unusual “rest day” after the sixth section on Friday had been canceled due to “extraordinarily strong winds”.
Maximilian Schachmann was no longer at the start: the Paris-Nice winner from 2020 and 2021 did not start the stage on Saturday because he was weak from a cold. In the overall standings, the driver from the German team Bora-hansgrohe was in 13th place, 2:06 minutes behind the top. Former world champion Mads Pedersen (Denmark/Trek-Segafredo), who had been the leader in the points classification up to now, also gave up before the start.
The last stage starts and ends on Sunday in Nice, the field of riders has to cover a demanding 118.4 km around the port city. The long-distance journey ends at Promenade des Anglais. “Tomorrow is another really difficult day. I will do everything to defend this shirt”said Pogacar.