Paris - Nice 2010: Stage 7

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January 1 - March 14, Nice, FRA, Road - HIS (Historical Calendar)

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Welcome back to the last stage of Paris-Nice, a nice little early afternoon romp of 119 km. If only those three Category One climbs weren't on the route, the riders might have a nice day! Not to mention the fact that our overall leader can't be at all sure of his victory yet. Let's see what happens today!

The first break went at km 2 – talk about an early start! It was Jens Mouris (Vacansoleil) and the prologue winner, Lars Boom of Rabobank

107km remaining from 119km

The first intermediate sprint is coming up at km 18.5, and remember, they offer bonus seconds to the first three riders.  Will we see Valverde, perhaps, try to go for it and pick up a bit more time on Contador?

Short but not so sweet is how we would describe today's stage. The first of the three Cat. One climbs comes at km 51, followed by another at km. 88.5, with the last one at km 103. That gives the riders 16km to gather back together – possibly – for the final showdown on the Promenade de Anglais in Nice.

And here is how that sprint went:

Those few seconds don't sound like much, but they were very important. The two secons for Sanchez were enough to move him up into third place overall, as he had been only one second behind Roman Kreuziger. And Sagan move up to 7th place, ahead of Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha).

Today is your final chance to enter the Paris-Nice podium contest! You can win a Cervelo musette bag and cap, both signed by Heinrich Haussler. All you have to do is guess today's stage podium.

Here are our climbs for the day:

88km remaining from 119km

86km remaining from 119km

Three riders have now abandoned because of the crash: Martin, El Fares, and Cervelo's Daniel Lloyd.

81km remaining from 119km

Alessandro Spezialetti (Lampre) throw in the towel, as well.

In additioh to all the riders who have abandoned, we had four riders DNS today: Nikolas Maes (Quick Step), Julien Loubel (AG2R), Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil) and Greg Henderson of Team Sky, who won the first stage.

Alejandro Valverde saw his chance and went for it, joining a move by Albert Timmer (Skil Shimano) and Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil). You can imagine what Astana thought of that! They immediately sent out a rider to bring that too-dangerous move back.

We had six abandons yesterday during the stage: Jimmy Casper (Saur-Sojasun), Mikel Nieve and Koldo Fernandez de Larrae (both Euskaltel), Arnoud Gerard (Francaise des Jeux), Jürgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Andre Greipel of Team HTC-Columbia.

74km remaining from 119km

Alberto Contador continues to lead in the race, although his lead was cut to 14 seconds yesterday when Alejandro Valverde got six bonus seconds with his second-place stage finish.

Things are happening fast and furious now. Chavanel and Peraud managed to drop the others and continue on, but Astana gave chase and caught them before the top of the mountain.

Bernard Hinault had his usual words of wisdom on letour.fr, and praised Caisse d'Epargne's tactics from yesterday. “They did not really expose themselves and yet they are a little bit closer thanks to Valverde, who collected a few seconds with his second place. It’s rather cunningly played as they moved all the pressure to the last stage today. With two riders in contention, they can attack each at a time to try and upset Contador and it’s perhaps the only way to do it. Recent years have shown that Paris-Nice can be won by the slimmest margins. It is not over yet.”

68km remaining from 119km

62km remaining from 119km

Roelandts told the belgian Sportwereld website that he dropped out of the race due to back problems. "I have lower back problems the last two days. . I think it is because of the long transfer by car we had to do Thursday evening,” he said. “I could of course ride Sunday, but for whom and for what?”

54km remaining from 119km

51km remaining from 119km

RadioShack's Alain Gallopin was satisfied with Saturday's stage, noting they had two riders in the break, Tiago Machado and Levi Leipheimer. “Machado worked hard but Levi is not quite ‘Super Levi’ yet. Still they did a good job,” he said.

The two leaders have now complete the descent of the first mountain and are ready to take on the ascent of the second mountain.

42km remaining from 119km

Let's take a final look at who is leading which category. Contador is in the yellow jersey with the overall lead, 14 seconds over Valverde and 25 seconds ahead of Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas).

37km remaining from 119km

Peter Sagan (Liquigas) leads the points classification, over Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank) and Valverde.

Amael Moinard (Cofidis) has a large lead in the mountain ranking, with 47 points. Second is Laurent Mangel (Saur-Sojasun) with 18 and third is Damiano Cunego with 17 points.

32km remaining from 119km

Kreuziger is best young rider, with Sagan second and Reine Taaramae (Cofidis) third.

28km remaining from 119km

We have beautiful sunshine again today, and our two leaders are really flying along.

24km remaining from 119km

Here's how they came over the second climb:

The peloton is flying along in single file.

Cervelo didn't sign Xavier Tondo until December. Was it worth it? Well, with a stage win like yesterday's, we would have to say yes. So do Tondo and Cervelo.

18km remaining from 119km

Voeckler definitely pulls away from the King of the Mountains now.

Voeckler is riding quite easily away.  The gap back to the field is now 1.25.

The pace is high enough that the peloton is dropping a number of riders.

Sagan is one of those who has been dropped.  A teammate is leading him -- and half a dozen others -- in an attempt to get back in the main group.

Three riders attack out of the peloton.  Contador goes after them, as does Valverde.

Voeckler and Moinard are together again.

We now have a chase group of five, led by Contador.  Valverde and a Caisse d'Epargne teammate are also in it.  They have only a miminal lead over the field.

103km remaining from 119km

LL Sanchez and Taaramae give chase.

15km remaining from 119km

Contador's group will catch the two leaders very soon now.

Valverde moves into the lead now.  Will he try to take off?

Contador didn't like that at all and takes the lead back.   He picks up the speed, and Rodriguez falls back slightly.

Sanchez has managed to drop Taaramae on the descent.

Sanchez has now caught the Contador group, and Taarame is trying to get them.

Only 15 seconds now.  Taaramae has now caught the Contador group., and a larger group has come up from behind as well.

Rodriguez attacks, but doesn't get away. Now a Caisse rider goes.

We have flurries of attacks, but Contador  is keeping hold of things.

Still 15 seconds for our two leaders.  The first chase group contains all the favourites, including S. Sanchez and Voigt.

It is a RadioShack rider with a slight lead, maybe Machado?

2km remaining from 119km

1km remaining from 119km

1km remaining from 119km

Voeckler and Moinard are determined to save their day and sprint for the win, with the field rapidly approaching.

Moinard noses out Voeckler, with the peloton crossing the finish line two seconds later!

Third place goes to Valverde -- but the time bonuses aren't enough!  Alberto Contador of Team Astana has won Paris-Nice.

Nicolas Roche takes fourth on the stage, with Taaramae fifth.

Sorry, the chasing field was three seconds back, not two.

Another large group comes over the finish line, 2:47 down.

Here is our final podium for Paris-Nice 2010:

Congratulations to Moinard and Contador on their victories today. 

Stage:

1 Amaël Moinard (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne
2 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
4 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
5 Reine Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne
6 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha
7 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank
8 Christopher Horner (USA) Team RadioShack
9 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Team RadioShack
10 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana

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