Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) scored the stage win on the penultimate stage of Paris-Nice, the Australian soloing home for the final 2km of a truncated stage 7 from the breakaway.
Storer raced to the seventh win of his career, and first with Tudor, after leaving behind Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) towards the top of the 7.3km, 7.2% closing climb.
He’d solo to the line at 20 seconds up on the Swiss champion, celebrating the win in pouring rain after 109km of racing. Tobias Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) rounded out the podium at 30 seconds.
The stage was cut by 39km due to poor weather at high altitudes, meaning the battle was all about the closing climb to Auron.
There was more of a fight among the breakaway riders than the GC men, however, with only Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) striking out in the final kilometre to gain three seconds on the other major GC contenders.
Race leader Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease A Bike) finished alongside Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), with the Dutchman moving up to third overall following the crash and abandon of Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) with 50km to go.
Jorgenson leads Lipowitz by 37 seconds ahead of Sunday’s final stage in the hills around Nice, while Arensman is third at 1:20. Storer jumps up nine GC spots to fourth at 2:25, while Almeida lies in fifth at 2:40.
How it unfolded
The penultimate stage of Paris-Nice would be a modified and shortened route with two climbs removed from the menu due to poor weather at high altitudes. As a result, the 147.8km stage would instead only take the riders 109.8km from Nice to Auron.
The riders would still have the second-category Côte d’Aspremont (9km at 5%) after 20km to contend with, along with a gradual 50km rise to Isola before the final ascent – 7.3km at 7.2% to the summit finish at Auron.
Given the truncated nature of the stage, it was no surprise that breakaway candidates sped off from the very start to try and make the move of the day.
Initially, a group of 12 made it up the road, with solid climbers Michael Storer (Tudor) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) accompanied by teammates Kelland O’Brien and Marco Haller.
There’d be some shuffling – riders dropping away, more attacks from behind – on the Côte d’Aspremont – however, with seven new riders bridging across as three, including Haller, dropped away.
In the end, Storer, Schmid and O’Brien were joined out front by Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers), Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor), Clément Izquierdo (Cofidis), the Groupama-FDJ pair of Stefan Küng and Johan Jacobs, and the TotalEnergies duo of Jordan Jegat and Alexandre Delettre.
Back in the peloton it was Visma-Lease A Bike in charge to protect Matteo Jorgenson’s yellow jersey, though only Storer – at 3:55 down – was anywhere close to resembling a GC threat.
The gap to the breakaway went out to two minutes over the climb and the following unclassified hill, and the group began the long drag to Isola with 2:30 on the peloton. Lidl-Trek had joined the fray in the chase, but at 51km to go with the rain falling, they lost their leader Mattias Skjelmose, who crashed out of the race after hitting a divider in the middle of the road.
The 15 men up front stayed intact meanwhile, nobody dropping away as the race hit the intermediate sprint at Isola. Further back, the peloton lay at 2:40 down with Nils Politt putting the work in the chase for UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
By the time the final climb started, under heavy rain, the peloton lay two minutes down on the break, which still had its full complement of 15 men. That wouldn’t last, however, as Delettre, Alaphilippe, and Jacobs let go early on the final ascent.
In the peloton, Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took over the pacemaking heading into the final 5km, bringing the gap down to 1:20 as more riders dropped from the break – Izquierdo, Küng, Wright, Armirail.
By the time the break hit the final 4km, with Ineos Grenadiers now leading the peloton, only Schmid and Storer remained up front, with EF duo Powless and Steinhauser the final two hangers-on.
The pair continued for a kilometre, at which point Storer pushed on to leave Schmid behind, striking out alone for the stage win. The Swiss rider briefly hung on a few seconds back, but he had no answer for Storer, who raced into the final kilometre alone and went on to claim victory.
Further down the mountain, Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) made a move off the front of the peloton, taking Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) with him, while GC contender João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was in trouble at the rear of the group.
Gall and Martinez, who were well out of GC contention, raced on to finish in sixth and seventh, 57 and 64 second down. Eighth place was taken by Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who jumped out of the main peloton of top contenders to gain three seconds at the line.
Jorgenson’s GC group saw the top contenders finish together with no major time gains or losses, while an impressive green jersey Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) put in a great ride to finish among the climbers.
Results
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