Richie Porte fights back at Paris-Nice
After a disastrous start on the first two stages of the race, Porte fought back winning the Queen stage, attacking on the final climb as Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) lost the overall lead
At 177 kilometres, the route of stage 7 in Paris-Nice traveled from Nice to Col de la Couillole. With two 1st category ascents, finishing at an elevation of 1,678 metres after a 15 kilometres closing climb. Never has Paris-Nice reached so high.
The early breakaway of the day included; Axel Domont (AG2R-La Mondiale), Jan Polanc (UAE), Omar Fraile (Dimension Data), Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) and Delio Fernandez (Delko-Marseille) and Pierre-Luc Périchon (Fortuneo Vital Concept). They built up a maximum lead of 5 minutes ahead of the peloton.
On the ascent to the Col Saint-Martin the breakaway started to split up. It didn't matter too much as behind them the bunch was led by Team Sky, working for their leader Sergio Henao who had his eye the overall lead.
The peloton led by Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo) set a very high pace that split the peloton and left Julian Alaphilippe clearly struggling at the back.
The final select group included Contador, Richie Porte, Dan Martin and Sergio Henao.
In the the last two kilometers Richie Porte attacked and got gap that allowed him to cross the finish line out in front.
Behind, Contador attacked several times and got a gap on both Martin and Henao to take second on the stage with Martin 3rd ahead of Henao on the line.
Henao's superb finish in relation to Alaphilippe who was dropped on the climb, catapulted Henao into the overall lead.
Dan Martin is just 30 seconds behind Henao and Contador is third at 31 seconds overall.
Tomorrow's final stage has 5 categorized climbs and could see a showdown with Henao, Contador and Martin battling to win the overall classification.
It is more than likely that both Contador and Martin will attack on the slopes of Côte De Peille or the slopes of Col d’Èze. Will Alaphilppe recover and attack too?
This will be a stage you won't want to miss!
2017 Paris-Nice Top 10 Results Stage 7
1 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 5:01:35
2 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:21
3 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:32
4 Sergio Henao (Col) Team Sky
5 Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:55
6 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:01:07
7 Pierre Roger Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:11
8 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:21
9 Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team
10 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Movistar Team
2017 Paris-Nice Top 10 Overall after Stage 7
1 Sergio Henao (Col) Team Sky 27:01:15
2 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:30
3 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:31
4 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:00
5 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:22
6 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:34
7 Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:41
8 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal 0:03:22
9 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Sunweb 0:04:07
10 Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:04:39