Bobby Julich held off a flurry of vicious attacks from Alejandro Valverde (Illes Balears) and Constantino Zaballa’s entire Saunier Duval team in Sunday’s final stage of Paris-Nice, taking the overall title to the very first event in the UCI’s new ProTour calendar.

But it almost didn’t happen that way.

Indeed, Julich believed that the worst was behind him as he rolled to the crest of the day’s final climb, the Col d’Eze, just 16km from the day’s finish in Nice. Just a descent and a flat ride to the finish stood between him and certain victory in Paris-Nice when he suffered an unexpected fright. Julich nearly hooked his handlebars with one of the motorcycles that ferry cameramen and photographers and nearly went skidding to the tarmac.

“That was the worst moment. I was thinking, here I am at the top of Col d’Eze and the race is nearly won, and I almost get knocked off because of a motorcycle,” said Julich.

Despite that scare, Julich roared down the serpentine descent off Col d’Eze on a spectacular sunny day along France’s glimmering Cote d’Azur and could sit back to watch Valverde take the stage victory.

The overall title was his, becoming the first American to win Paris-Nice. It’s Julich first stage-race win since 1997 when he won the Route du Sud and Tour de l’Ain.

“I have never won a race of this stature. This is a huge result for me,” said Julich, who held a 10-second winning margin to Valverde. “When I looked at the names of the riders who’ve won this race, it’s a huge honor for me, but it hasn’t sunk it.”

Julich won Paris-Nice in part thanks to some bad luck for the others, especially in the first stage when a crash split the field and only 23 riders made it through with the winning time.

Again in Thursday’s stage, Julich snuck into the winning break and took back 28 seconds that would prove decisive. But Julich held up his end of the bargain, finishing 10th up Mont Faron to take the jersey and then riding with confidence to secure the victory in the final two stages.

“Sometimes you have to make your own luck,” Julich said. “Maybe I had some luck to win this Paris-Nice, but maybe it was my turn to be lucky because I’ve had my fair share of bad luck through the years.”

Valverde on the rampage
Julich expected fireworks in Sunday’s 135km finale, which included the Cat. 1 Col de la Porte at 52km and two passages up the stunning Cat. 1 Col d’Eze high above the French Riviera.

“If anyone wants to take this jersey off of me today they’re going to have to earn it,” Julich said before the stage. “I think it’s going to be a fast start and everyone will be anxious to show their strength.”

Several riders slipped away heading toward the Cat. 2 Cote de Duranus at 25.5km, including: Oscar Pereiro (Phonak), Alberto Contador (Liberty Seguros), Rik Verbrugghe (Quick Step), Volodymir Gustov (Fassa Bortolo), David Moncoutie (Cofidis) and Charlie Wegelius (Liquigas).

The built up a lead of 2:35 when Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel), Joaquim Rodriguez (Saunier Duval) and Mario Aerts (Davitamon-Lotto) gave chase. The break stayed away over the Col de la Porte and the first passage over Col d’Eze, with Moncoutie securing the points to win the King of the Mountain title.

Contador attacked the group on the final passage up Col d’Eze, gaining a 47-second margin near the summit, but things were getting interesting in the main bunch whittled down to about 20 riders.

Valverde attacked Julich with four volleys, but each time hard-working Jens Voigt (CSC) would close down the gap.

“I tried to get away, but I was caught back every time. I thought maybe I could go away, but Voigt proved too strong,” Valverde said. “Then I started to think about trying to win the stage.”

Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas-Bianchi), Jorg Jaksche (Liberty Seguros) and Cadel Evans (Davitamon-Lotto) also made accelerations, but Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile) was the only to really get away.

The two-time Paris-Nice champion chased down Contador with 10km to go, but the pair was reeled with just 100 meters to go behind the fast-charging lead group.

Valverde made a frenetic sprint to take his first victory outside of Spain ahead of Pellizotti while Kim Kirchen (Fassa Bortolo) came through third.

“This is very gratifying to win a stage at Paris-Nice, a race that’s very prestigious,” Valverde said, who shaved the margin to Julich to 10 seconds thanks to a time bonus. “Now people can’t say I can’t win outside of France.”

Julich, meanwhile, savored the victory, enjoying the finish line ceremonies with his wife and daughter who came down from the hills where they live above Nice.

“I feel like I have a new lease on life,” said Julich, recalling his lean years after he finished third in the 1998 Tour. “Don’t call this a comeback. I’ve been around for years. I’ve seen all the peaks and valleys of this sport, but I never quit. Right now I am living in the present, not the past.”

And for Julich right now, the future is looking very good as well.

Fullresults are posted

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Bobby Julich (USA)
Born: November 18, 1971, Corpus Christi Texas.
Height: 6 feet
Weight: 149 pounds
 
Teams: Spago (1992), Rossin (1993), Chevrolet (1994), Motorola(1995 and 1996), Cofidis (1997 - 1999), Crédit Agricole (2000 and2001), Telekom (2002 and 2003), CSC (joined 2004)
 
Career highlights:
Luk-Cup: 2005 (Team time trial with J. Voigt) 1st
Olympics: Bronze medal individual time trial, Athens, 2004
 
Paris-Nice: 2005 (1st); 2004(3rd)
Critérium international: 1998 (1st) 2004(4th)
Tour de l'Ain: 1997 (Overall plus one stage win)
Tour du Pays Basque: 2004 (stage win)
Route du Sud: 1997 (Overall plus two stage wins)
 
Tour de France:
Seven starts, six finishes
1997 – 17th overall
1998 – third overall
1999 – DNF
2000 – 48th overall
2001 – 18th overall
2002 – 37th overall
2004 – 40th overallRanked 30th in the world at the end of 2004.