Never say never again. For the second year in succession, Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) launched a late offensive on the final day of Paris-Nice, and for the second year in succession, he fell just short, as Sergio Henao (Team Sky) held on to win the overall title by just two seconds Sunday. Thrilling Paris-Nice finale ends in heartbreak for Contador Paris-Nice stage 8 highlights - Video Henao comes through Paris-Nice panic to beat Contador Paris-Nice: De la Cruz salvages final day stage win for Quick-Step Floors David de la Cruz (Quick-Step) claimed the stage victory in Nice in a two-up sprint against Contador, which ultimately denied the Trek man the bonus seconds that would have given him the third Paris-Nice title of his career. Just 115 kilometres in length and with five climbs on the menu, the final stage of Paris-Nice lent itself to Contador's particular brand of all-out aggression, and though his 31-second deficit at the start of a day was a daunting one, another Fuente De-style remontada suddenly seemed on the cards when he attacked with 52 kilometres to go on the Cote de Peille. Contador's attack came after his lieutenant Jarlinson Pantano had set a brisk tempo on the upper slopes of the climb. Although Henao and Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) were lined up on Contador's wheel, they were unable to match his fierce acceleration, which tore the yellow jersey group asunder. Contador picked off the remnants of the day's early break as he rode towards the summit of the Peille, and swooped down over the other side as part of a new 14-man group that included De la Cruz and Michael Matthews (Sunweb). Henao crested the summit 40 seconds down on Contador, meaning that the Spaniard was the race leader on the road, and at that point, his situation looked grave for the Colombian national champ. The yellow jersey group eventually swelled to 23 riders on the descent, however, and Henao's teammates David Lopez and Sebastian Henao helped to keep Contador's lead stable on the approach to the final climb, the Col d'Eze. Once on the Col d'Eze, Contador was immediately out of the saddle, bobbing from side to side in familiar style, laying down a tempo that only De Le Cruz and Marc Soler (Movistar) could follow. Behind, Henao's deficit yawned out towards a minute and he was forced to do the bulk of the pace-setting in the yellow jersey group with Martin, Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) poised on his rear wheel. A brace of attacks from Richie Porte (BMC Racing) did little other than disrupt the rhythm of the yellow jersey group, though Contador finally began to betray signs of struggling near the top of the Col d'Eze. When Soler accelerated, Contador left him to do it, preferring to tap out his own rhythm. Contador and De la Cruz crested the summit 10 seconds down on Soler but 50 seconds ahead of Henao. With 15 kilometres remaining, Contador remained the provisional leader, and when he picked up two bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint in Eze and then caught Soler shortly afterwards, it seemed that all the momentum was with him. The shallow descent, however, was more conducive to the large chasing group behind, and though Henao no longer had any Sky teammates with him, he caught a sizeable break when Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) began to take lengthy turns on the front. Suddenly, Contador's advantage began to narrow once again. By the base of the descent, it was clear that, like last year, Paris-Nice was going to be decided by single-digit figures, as Contador's lead dropped to 30 seconds. Contador pressed on alone with two kilometres to go, eager to pick up the maximum 10-second time bonus for the stage win, but, crucially, De la Cruz managed to bridge across shortly before the flamme rouge. In a breathless final kilometre, there was no time for tactical finesse. Contador led into the finishing straight and, hardly surprisingly, was beaten in the two-up sprint by De la Cruz. He didn't have to wait long to learn his fate. 21 seconds later, Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) led the yellow jersey group home, meaning that Henao salvaged his yellow jersey by a mere two seconds.
Dan Martin finished in the same time to seal third place overall, 30 seconds down. Contador, winner of Paris-Nice in 2007 and 2010, could only smile wanly as he realised what had happened. "It's really a shame," he said shortly afterwards. "I attacked from a long way out but it was a little too far before the finish line. But it was a beautiful race and I'm happy to have played a part in that. I didn't win but I'm glad. That's the way I am. I have to try something, I can't be content with sitting back. I have to take risks.
Top Fifteen of 2017 Paris Nice General Classification:
Sergio Henao (Colombia) Team Sky 29:50:29, 2 Alberto Contador (Spain) Trek-Segafredo, 0:00:02 3 Daniel Martin (Ireland) Quick-Step Floor's 0:00:30 4 Gorka Izagirre (Spain) Movistar Team 0:01:00,
5 Julian Alaphilippe (France) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:22 6 Ilnur Zakarin (Russia) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:34 7 Jon Izaguirre (Spain) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:41, 8 Warren Barguil (France) Team Sunweb 0:04:07, 9 Simon Yates (Great Britain) Orica-Scott 0:04:39, 10 Tony Gallopin (France) Lotto Soudal 0:09:14, 11 Richie Porte (Australia) BMC Racing Team 0:14:26, 12 Jakob Fuglsang (Denark) Astana Pro Team 0:18:07, 13 Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) Quick-Step Floors 0:19:33, 14 Sam Oomen (Netherland) Team Sunweb 0:20:08, 15 Romain Hardy (Franace) Fortuneo - Vital Concept 0:20:25.
No comments:
Post a Comment