Paris-Nice 2020 – Stage 7 [FULL STAGE]

March 14, 2020

Paris-Nice 2020 – Stage 7 – Nice – Valdeblore La Colmiane : 166,5 km

Who is and who isn’t? Ian Brown’s repeated question from the stage of Blackpool’s Empress Ballroom all those years ago during a famous Stone Roses concert has been echoed in the days leading up to the 2020 edition of Paris-Nice. At the time of writing, seven WorldTour teams have confirmed their withdrawal from the Race to the Sun, citing concerns over the risk of contracting or spreading coronavirus Covid-19. The withdrawal of Team Ineos of defending champion Egan Bernal is also a mark of respect to the late Nicolas Portal, who died tragically earlier this week and whose funeral takes place in Auch on Monday. CCC Team, Mitchelton-Scott, Movistar, Astana, UAE Team Emirates and now Jumbo-Visma have pulled out of Paris-Nice – and the since-postponed slate of racing in Italy – strictly as a precaution against Covid-19. Earlier this week, however, the French ministry for sport gave the green light for Paris-Nice to go ahead, albeit with a caveat that local governments along the route retain the right to impose restrictions if the situation develops. As of Friday morning, France had 423 confirmed cases of Covid-19 distributed nationwide, but Emmanuel Macron’s government has for the time being stopped short of declaring a stage 3 epidemic in the country and taking dramatic actions similar to those decreed in Italy that forced the cancellation of all the March races.

Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) secured overall victory at the 2020 Paris-Nice on Saturday despite a late attack from Tiesj Benoot (Team Sunweb) on the closing climb to Valdeblore La Colmiane that pushed the German to the limit.

Nairo Quintana took the final stage with a blistering attack with 3.6km to go for which a select group of rivals had no response. Arkea-Samsic’s Colombian leader soloed across the line for his third stage win of the season after taking overall wins previously at Tour de la Provence and Tour des Alpes.

Further down the hill, Schachmann battled to hang on to a select final group that included Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling) and Benoot, who started the day just 36 seconds down on Schachmann.

The Belgian played his final card with just over a kilometre remaining, jumping away from his rivals with Quintana already up the road. Benoot got an initial gap, but Schachmann benefited from a chase by Higuita and was able to limit his losses to just 12 seconds, preserving his overall lead to Benoot by 18 seconds.

Higuita finished third overall at 59 seconds, Nibali was fourth at 1:16 and Pinot was fifth overall at 1:24.

“It was very, very hard,” Schachmann said after collapsing to the ground beyond the finish line.

“I think you saw that Patrick [Konrad], Schwarzy [Michael Schwarzmann] and Felix [Grobschartner] did an incredible job. We controlled the race with three riders. For me it was a really hard finish. I’m going to be honest, in the last three kilometres I walked through hell and a world of pain. But now it’s like being in heaven. Every little bit of pain in my legs was worth it.”

The 26-year-old German led the race from start to finish after taking out the opening stage and then finishing second to Søren Kragh Andersen in the 15.1km stage 4 time trial. With Paris-Nice being cut short one stage early because of the coronavirus pandemic, Saturday’s summit finish was Schachmann’s biggest test of the week and he handled it well.

“This is the fourth year of my career, and this is one of the biggest wins of my career and one of the most important steps,” he said. “It feels so great because for my whole life people were doubting if I could be a GC rider, but it was always my dream. Now I’m here and I’ve won one of the most prestigious one-week stage races.”

Quintana’s stage win was further proof that the 30-year-old Colombian is on stellar form, albeit with the cycling season going into hiatus until at least April, if not longer.

“I always try to win like this, with elegance and a good attitude,” Quintana said after the stage. “We were highly motivated to do things well and have been working hard. The team worked hard to catch the break, and then I did what I had to do.

“There was nothing I could do for the GC,” he explained. “I crashed badly and l lost too much time that day. So I knew I had to attack today, because I wanted to bring joy to the team because of the effort that everyone has made. It is a gift for all of them. I always demand a lot, but here are the results.”

Quintana showed no disappointment in the suspended season while he is riding high atop a curve of fitness, saying the world’s health is more important. He plans to return home to Colombia and continue training after a spell in quarantine to protect his family after the risk of coming into contact with the coronavirus during Paris-Nice.

“Now we’ll try to return to Colombia, spend time with the family while this important problem for the world is resolved,” he said.

“We are aware of what is happening, we’ve finally finished today and we will also be quarantined so that this virus does not continue to spread. We have to listen to the authorities so that this does not get out of hand, and we can all return to work soon.”

How it unfolded

With Sunday’s final stage around Nice cancelled because of the ongoing pandemic, Saturday’s 166.5km stage from Nice to a summit finish in Valdeblore La Colmiane would prove to be the most decisive of Paris-Nice.

The stage started like any other, as attacks sprang from the start until a move finally started to take shape when Anthony Perez (Cofidis) and Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) slipped away less than 10km into the day.

Thomas, De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Fabien Doubey (Circus Wanty Gobert), Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) went on the attack, forcing a concerted chase by the other overall contenders

With 140km remaining, the lead group had coalesced into Alaphilippe, Paret-Peintre, De Gendt, Alberto Bettiol, Perez and Edet. The leaders built an ultimate gap of three minutes and Alaphilippe became virtual race leader for a moment but Schachmann’s Bora-Hansgrohe teammates kept the escapees well in check throughout the day.

Perez dropped from the lead group with 35km remaining, leaving five up front while the gap started to come down precipitously, dipping to 1:30 with 25km to go.

Arkea-Samsic moved to the front to help with the chase and set-up Quintana and the leaders’ advantage continued to fall as teams positioned for the stage hunt and the final general classification effort.

The breakaway disintegrated on the bottom of the climb up to the finish with 16km to go, leaving Just Alaphilippe and De Gendt up front. Soon it was just De Gendt at the head of affairs after Alaphilippe cracked, as the GC battle started to take shape behind him.

With 12km to go, De Gendt had 1:20 on the rapidly exploding peloton, but attacks from the bunch meant his chances were doomed.

Quintana was the first to pass De Gendt with 2.5km to go as the Belgian faded back into the fold and the GC fireworks started to go off. Quintana was on a mission and uncatchable, as Trek-Segafredo lined out the select group and Schachmann dug deep to stay on the wheels.

Benoot made a late, brave attack and finished second but failed to gain enough time on Schachmann, who collapsed to the ground but was went from the hell of lactic acid to the heaven of overall victory.

Results :
1 Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic 4:27:01
2 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Team Sunweb 0:00:46
3 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:56
4 Sergio Andres Higuita Garcia (Col) EF Pro Cycling
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
6 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:58
7 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis 0:01:19
8 Tanel Kangert (Est) EF Pro Cycling 0:01:22
9 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale 0:01:32
10 Rudy Molard (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
11 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:01:48
12 Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb 0:02:10
13 Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:03:36
14 Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:40
15 Christopher Hamilton (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:03:54
16 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Circus-Wanty Gobert
17 Fabien Doubey (Fra) Circus-Wanty Gobert 0:03:58
18 John Degenkolb (Ger) Lotto Soudal 0:04:44
19 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
20 Olivier Le Gac (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
21 Kenny Elissonde (Fra) Trek-Segafredo 0:05:40
22 Aurélien Paret Peintre (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale 0:06:04
23 Bob Jungels (Lux) Deceuninck-Quickstep 0:06:35
24 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:07:06
25 Romain Combaud (Fra) Nippo Delko Provence 0:07:31
26 Cees Bol (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:07:50
27 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) NTT Pro Cycling 0:08:10
28 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Deceuninck-Quickstep
29 Quentin Pacher (Fra) B&B Hotels-Vital Concept 0:09:19
30 Cyril Barthe (Fra) B&B Hotels-Vital Concept
31 Tim Declercq (Bel) Deceuninck-Quickstep
32 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-Quickstep 0:09:56
33 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Team Sunweb
34 Winner Anacona (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic
35 Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ 0:12:27
36 Nico Denz (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:13:07
37 Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis 0:13:40
38 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) EF Pro Cycling 0:14:19
39 Sander Armee (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:14:59
40 Ryan Gibbons (RSA) NTT Pro Cycling
41 Julien Vermote (Bel) Cofidis
42 Kasper Asgreen (Den) Deceuninck-Quickstep
43 Antoine Duchesne (Can) Groupama-FDJ
44 Connor Swift (GBr) Team Arkea-Samsic
45 Sebastian Schönberger (Aut) B&B Hotels-Vital Concept
46 Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Circus-Wanty Gobert
47 Dries Van Gestel (Bel) Total Direct Energie
48 Michael Hundahl (Den) NTT Pro Cycling
49 Dayer Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic
50 Mikael Cherel (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale 0:17:03
51 Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:17:34
52 Evaldas Siskevicius (Ltu) Nippo Delko Provence 0:18:49
53 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Deceuninck-Quickstep
54 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:19:08
55 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe
56 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Total Direct Energie 0:19:10
57 Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo 0:19:27
58 Anthony Perez (Fra) Cofidis 0:21:56
59 Piet Allegaert (Bel) Cofidis
60 Julien Trarieux (Fra) Nippo Delko Provence
61 Mauro Finetto (Ita) Nippo Delko Provence
DNS Mads Pedersen (Den) Trek-Segafredo
DNF Alex Kirsch (Lux) Trek-Segafredo
DNF Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic
DNF Daniel McLay (GBr) Team Arkea-Samsic
DNF Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Groupama-FDJ
DNF Marc Sarreau (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
DNF Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
DNF Juraj Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
DNF Michael Schwarzmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
DNF Yves Lampaert (Bel) Deceuninck-Quickstep
DNF Benoit Cosnefroy (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale
DNF Alexis Gougeard (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale
DNF Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale
DNF Nans Peters (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale
DNF Frederik Frison (Bel) Lotto Soudal
DNS Roger Kluge (Ger) Lotto Soudal
DNF Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Cofidis
DNF Damien Touze (Fra) Cofidis
DNF Tom Scully (NZl) EF Pro Cycling
DNF Sep Vanmarcke (Bel) EF Pro Cycling
DNF Lilian Calmejane (Fra) Total Direct Energie
DNF Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Total Direct Energie
DNF Adrien Petit (Fra) Total Direct Energie
DNF Anthony Turgis (Fra) Total Direct Energie
DNF Victor Campenaerts (Bel) NTT Pro Cycling
DNF Michael Gogl (Aut) NTT Pro Cycling
DNS Ben O’Connor (Aus) NTT Pro Cycling
DNS Nils Politt (Ger) Israel Start-Up Nation
DNS Jenthe Biermans (Bel) Israel Start-Up Nation
DNS Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Israel Start-Up Nation
DNF José Gonçalves (Por) Nippo Delko Provence
DNF Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Nippo Delko Provence
DNF Aime De Gendt (Bel) Circus-Wanty Gobert
DNF Boy Van Poppel (Ned) Circus-Wanty Gobert
DNF Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Bel) Circus-Wanty Gobert
DNF Bryan Coquard (Fra) B&B Hotels-Vital Concept
DNF Jens Debusschere (Bel) B&B Hotels-Vital Concept

Final General Classification :
1 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 27:14:23
2 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Team Sunweb 0:00:18
3 Sergio Andres Higuita Garcia (Col) EF Pro Cycling 0:00:59
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:16
5 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:01:24
6 Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic 0:01:30
7 Rudy Molard (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:02:03
8 Tanel Kangert (Est) EF Pro Cycling 0:02:16
9 Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:03:39
10 Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb 0:04:36
11 Fabien Doubey (Fra) Circus-Wanty Gobert 0:05:36
12 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis 0:06:37
13 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo 0:08:10
14 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:08:57
15 Bob Jungels (Lux) Deceuninck-Quickstep 0:10:36
16 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-Quickstep 0:11:00
17 John Degenkolb (Ger) Lotto Soudal 0:11:36
18 Olivier Le Gac (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:12:01
19 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale 0:12:44
20 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Deceuninck-Quickstep 0:13:14
21 Aurélien Paret Peintre (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale 0:16:27
22 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Circus-Wanty Gobert 0:17:12
23 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:17:34
24 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) NTT Pro Cycling 0:18:20
25 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:19:09
26 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:19:20
27 Michael Hundahl (Den) NTT Pro Cycling 0:22:53
28 Mikael Cherel (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale 0:26:40
29 Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ 0:26:56
30 Kasper Asgreen (Den) Deceuninck-Quickstep
31 Tim Declercq (Bel) Deceuninck-Quickstep 0:26:59
32 Winner Anacona (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic 0:27:55
33 Sebastian Schönberger (Aut) B&B Hotels-Vital Concept 0:30:44
34 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:30:55
35 Kenny Elissonde (Fra) Trek-Segafredo 0:31:00
36 Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Circus-Wanty Gobert 0:31:32
37 Romain Combaud (Fra) Nippo Delko Provence 0:31:50
38 Cees Bol (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:32:01
39 Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:34:58
40 Quentin Pacher (Fra) B&B Hotels-Vital Concept 0:35:25
41 Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo 0:36:04
42 Julien Vermote (Bel) Cofidis 0:38:36
43 Connor Swift (GBr) Team Arkea-Samsic 0:39:47
44 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) EF Pro Cycling 0:40:03
45 Mauro Finetto (Ita) Nippo Delko Provence 0:40:13
46 Antoine Duchesne (Can) Groupama-FDJ 0:41:30
47 Ryan Gibbons (RSA) NTT Pro Cycling 0:41:31
48 Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis 0:41:52
49 Evaldas Siskevicius (Ltu) Nippo Delko Provence 0:43:24
50 Christopher Hamilton (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:44:01
51 Dayer Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic 0:44:02
52 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Deceuninck-Quickstep 0:45:11
53 Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo 0:45:36
54 Piet Allegaert (Bel) Cofidis 0:51:55
55 Julien Trarieux (Fra) Nippo Delko Provence 0:52:53
56 Anthony Perez (Fra) Cofidis 0:54:16
57 Cyril Barthe (Fra) B&B Hotels-Vital Concept 0:55:23
58 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Total Direct Energie 0:56:50
59 Dries Van Gestel (Bel) Total Direct Energie 0:56:55
60 Sander Armee (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:57:12
61 Nico Denz (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:57:17