Paris-Nice 2019

Sam Bennett wins stage 6 as Kwiatkowski maintains overall lead

Egan Bernal (Team Sky) claimed his second WorldTour title after taking overall victory at Paris-Nice. Bernal withstood a long-range attack from Nairo Quintana (Movistar) to keep a hold of the yellow jersey he had taken the day before. Quintana had to settle for second place overall with Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) moving up to third place. 

The final stage of Paris-Nice has been a dramatic showdown in recent years and organisers decided to keep the short, explosive parcours that has helped deliver it. At just 110 kilometres, the stage was full gas almost from the start and a large group of 37 riders escaped on the second climb of the day. 

Quintana had three teammates in the move and bridged across to them midway through the stage. At times, Quintana had the virtual race lead but he would not be able to hold onto the time needed to overhaul Bernal in the standings. 

Meanwhile, Ion Izagirre (Astana) had been in the breakaway all day and he took his opportunity to strike out alone in the final kilometres. He avoided crashing, as he had done on this stage last year, and had plenty of time to celebrate his stage win.

Brief Paris-Nice stage 8 results