Paris-Nice stage 6: Zakarin wins on La Madone d'Utelle

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Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) outsprinted the top favourites to take the win in the mountaintop finish Saturday during stage 6 of Paris-Nice. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) rounded out the podium one second behind, while defending champion Richie Porte (BMC Racing) was the fourth member of the group at seven seconds down.

With overnight leader Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) cracking on the final climb, Thomas’ runner-up finish propelled him into the overall race lead by 15 seconds over Contador and Zakarin in third at 20 seconds back. Porte is now fourth at 21 seconds down, followed by Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) 32 seconds back in fifth.

The day’s decisive move came on the last of seven climbs, the category one La Madone d’Utelle. The small chasing group, of some 30 riders, caught Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie), the last of the day’s break group, at the base of the climb.

Contador and Thomas both tried to attack out of the group but were unable to break from one another. The group of four – Zakarin, Thomas, Contador, and Porte – went under the red flag together. As Porte sagged back, Zakarin put on a final burst of speed to move around the two favourites and claim the victory.

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How it Happened

Saturday’s 177km stage from from Nice to Madone d’Utelle featured an up-and-down route with seven categorized climbs interspersed evenly throughout the day.

The daunting parcours didn’t stop a determined group of seven riders from setting off just over 20km in, with Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie), Florian Vachon (Fortuneo), Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep), Cyril Gautier (AG2R), Gregory Rast (Trek), Evaldas Siskevicius (Delko Marseilles) and Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre) initiating the move. Cannondale’s Andrew Talansky bridged to the group and was quickly followed by Lotto Soudal’s Thomas De Gendt to form the day’s group of nine.

The gap reached 2:25 but was back down to 1:30 after 70km of racing. De Gendt took top mountains classification points at the first four KOMs, as the leaders’ pace first jettisoned Siskevicius and then Rast. Duchense, who had garnered KOM points on previous days, led the mountains classification at this point, but De Gendt had climbed into second with two climbs remaining on the stage.

Tinkoff kept up the pressure in the peloton, keeping the breakaway in check for Contador, and the gap was down to one minute with 55km to go. Talansky crashed on a descent and was fored to abandon from the breakaway, while the leaders’ pace whittled the group down to two as Vachon and Duchesne carried on at the front. Duchesne was soon alone with 35km to go as Tinkoff continued to lead the peloton at 1:12.

The 24-year-old Canadian eventually succumbed to the chase, now led by Team Sky, with 15km remaining, but he earned the polka dot jersey for his efforts.

The Sky pace on the final climb whittled the group down to about 30 riders, with most of the favourites clinging to the pack. Sky was still lined up on the front when Rafal Majka slipped up the side of the road with Contador on tow at 10km to go. Majka picked up the pacemaking as Sky riders started to fall off the lead pace. Sergio and Thomas followed the Tinkoff pair, followed by Zakarin, Porte, Dumoulin, Romain Bardet, Simon Yates, Ion Izagirre in a group of about 15.

When Majka pulled off with 5.5km to go, the lead group was down to just the handful of contenders, with Contador attacking briefly but unable to drop Thomas, Henao, Zakarin and Porte. Simon Yages fought his way back to the group, but on the final steep pitches it was left to Zakarin, Thomas, Contador and Porte to battle for the win and overall lead.

Full Results