As expected, two-time Tour winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) snagged overall victory at the 81st edition of the Paris-Nice long-distance race.
The Slovene dominated the demanding 8th and last stage around the port city of Nice (118.4 km) from the front, was able to break away on the decisive climb to the Col d’Eze and drove to his third stage win.
Pogacar distances competitors before the finish
“It was always my goal to win Paris-Nice”, Pogacar said at the finish after bowing to the crowd: “It was even a dream, so it’s incredible. If I don’t win anything by the end of the season, it’s still a successful season.”
The 24-year-old crossed the finish line on the Promenade des Anglais 33 seconds ahead of Tour Champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). Pogacar’s big adversary from Denmark won the sprint against David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), in the overall classification Vingegaard finished 1:39 minutes behind Pogacar but still behind the French in third place (+0.53).
Attack on the last climb
“The level was very high. Sharing the podium with Gaudu and Vingegaard is very special as they are two excellent riders”, said Pogacar, who is in an impressive early form and has won nine out of 13 races this year.
With 21 km to go, all the top drivers were in a group of 30, then Pogacar pulled away impressively to 45 seconds on the six-kilometer climb with an average gradient of 7.6 percent. “Attack is the best defense”commented Pogacar.
Germans didn’t matter
There was a moment of shock about 60 kilometers before the finish: a car was in the way in a curve, but the drivers were all able to avoid it in time.
As the best German driver, Nils Politt (Bora-hansgrohe) finished 45th overall. Maximilian Schachmann, who won the long-distance race in 2020 and 2021 and was 13th after Friday, had to retire the day before because of a cold.