Simon Yates wins Queen Stage and takes race lead

Mitchelton-Scott's Simon Yates launched a successful attack in the final kilometres of the Queen Stage of Paris-Nice

The Briton crossed the finish line on his own after launching a last kilometre attack on Ion Izagirre.

The seventh stage in the French race  included three climbs second category and two of the first category climsb, and finished atop Col de la Couillole after 175 kilometres.

Eight riser formed the day's breakaway including Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Alessandro de Marchi and Nicolas Roche (BMC) and builty a lea dof 3 minutes, but the break was reduced in size as the climbs passed by.

Meanwhile, the peloton spli into two due to strong winds, ahead de Marchi and Pantano crashed during a descent, leaving three men leading the race.

There were a lot of abandonments on the stage; Mike Teunissen (Sunweb), Alexander Kristoff and Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) were forced to climb off..

At the start of the final climb of the Col de la Couillole, the break was caught and some bif favorites including Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) struggled at the back of the remaining peloton.

The rest of the climb proved to be too hard for GC leader Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) and his teammate Jakob Fuglsang.

With four kilometres to go, Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) launched an attack and was followed by Bahrain-Merida's Ion Izagirre and dropped other favourites including Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors), Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) and Sergio Henao (Sky).

With 2 kms to go, BMC's Dylan Teuns attacked and Alaphilippe was dropped.

Up front, simon Yates attacked and Izagirre couldn't follow, Yates taking the stage victory and race lead.

Teuns and Izagirre were second and third on the day.

2018 Paris-Nice Stage 7 Video Highlights

2018 Paris-Nice Stage 7 Top 10

1 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 5:02:54 
2 Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:00:08 
3 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida   
4 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:13 
5 Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal   
6 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:20 
7 Sergio Henao (Col) Team Sky 0:00:46 
8 Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team   
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:00:48 
10 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:54 

2018 Paris-Nice GC after Stage 7

1 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 27:29:02 
2 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:11 
3 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:12 
4 Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:13 
5 Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:00:27 
6 Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:37 
7 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:39 
8 Sergio Henao (Col) Team Sky 0:00:57 
9 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:48 
10 Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:49