Paris-Nice: Izagirre takes final stage while Bernal hangs on for GC victory

Ion Izagirre (Astana) attacked out of an elite lead group and soloed to victory in the final stage of Paris-Nice, Sunday.

Egan Bernal (Team Sky) benefited from the work of his teammates to mitigate a long-range attack by Nairo Quintana (Movistar), who was making a last-ditch assault on the GC, having started the day 46 seconds behind his young rival. Bernal’s win marks Team Sky’s sixth victory in eight years at the race. Quintana finished second overall, 39 seconds down, and Team Sky also took third place on the podium with Michal Kwiatkowski.

“I can’t believe that I just won Paris-Nice,” said Bernal. “It’s incredible for me. I’m really happy. I… I just can’t believe it yet.”

The final stage of the race was the traditional short punchy affaire through the hills of Nice, with six short categorized climbs sprinkled through the 110-kilometer route. The final ascent – the Col de Quatre Chemins – peaked out just 9kms from the line, before a descent into Nice.

A large breakaway went early in the day, with three Movistar men – Héctor Carretero, Marc Soler, and Winner Anacona – in the 40-strong group. Teejay van Garderen (EF-Education First) and Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) broke from the group to lead the race with 50km to go. The action also hotted up back in the peloton at this point, which was around 1:30 behind, having been controlled by Team Sky, looking to protect Bernal’s yellow jersey.

Quintana attacked from the peloton and soon bridged over to his Movistar teammates, looking to take the 46 seconds required for him to take the overall victory. Team Sky was fortunate to have strength in numbers, with five riders working for Bernal, with Tao Geoghegan Hart and Ivan Sosa taking huge pulls on the front.

The margin of the leading Quintana group began to tumble as few were willing to take turns, leaving the Colombian to do the majority of the work.

Izagirre made his move on the final climb of the day, and held off a chase from Simon Yates to reach the summit alone, descending towards Nice solo. Oliver Naesen (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) chased the Spaniard but to no avail, and finished second and third respectively, 18 seconds back.

Quintana crossed the line 22 seconds after the stage winner, however, he hadn’t gained the advantage he needed to snatch overall victory, with Bernal finishing just 4 seconds behind him after the fierce chase led by his Sky teammates.

“Even if there were a few tough moments I had a huge team around me today and that made it a matter of staying calm, staying concentrated and taking care on the descents,” said Bernal, who will be leading the team at the Giro D’Italia in May.