Aleksandr Vlasov took his first victory of the season on the mountaintop end to La Madone d’Utelle on stage seven of Paris-Good. The Bora-Hansgrohe rider launched a counter-attack with 4km to go, as these within the group behind regarded round and marked one another.
Vlasov had not been a menace within the normal classification, as he discovered himself almost three minutes down in the beginning of the day. Nevertheless, this victory brings him additional into competition, as he moved himself as much as tenth total forward of tomorrow’s closing stage round Good.
Behind him on the highway, Brandon McNulty (UAE Staff Emirates) managed to take care of his total lead within the normal classification, regardless of being dropped by the primary group within the closing kilometres. He would lose time to these round him within the total standings, however holds on to the maillot jaune, as he managed to restrict his losses within the finale.
The route for the stage had been altered a few days prior, with the end being moved to La Madone d’Utelle as a result of hostile climate on the deliberate mountaintop end at Auron. The riders nonetheless confronted moist situations all through the day although, as all of them tried to remain heat within the peloton.
The stage started with a gaggle of three riders going clear, as Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), Johan Jacobs (Movistar) and Martijn Tusveld (dsm-firmenich PostNL) received a spot on the primary categorised climb of the Côte de Gattières.
After Tusveld suffered a mechanical just a few kilometres later, it left simply Thomas and Jacobs on the entrance, with the pair working collectively for round 50km till the Frenchman known as it quits and dropped again to the peloton.
Soudal Fast-Step had been setting the tempo behind in the primary group for Remco Evenepoel, who was clearly feeling at residence within the Flandrien-esque situations within the South of France.
They left Jacobs dangling out entrance for a number of kilometres earlier than making the catch on the foot of the ultimate climb with round 14km to go.
As they reached the decrease slopes of the La Madone d’Utelle, the GC contenders had stripped right down to their race jerseys in preparation for the problem to come back because the tempo started to ramp up, with increasingly groups coming to the entrance of the peloton.
The likes of Jay Vine (UAE Staff Emirates) and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) dropped early on the climb, as they had been clearly struggling within the chilly situations and had been unable to stay with the tempo within the group, which was nonetheless being set by Soudal Fast-Step.
With 8.5km to go Laurens De Plus got here to the entrance of the primary group for Ineos Grenadiers as he introduced Egan Bernal to the entrance of the group to contest the intermediate dash at Utelle. The Colombian took most factors and 6 bonus seconds, forward of Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal Fast-Step) and Evenepoel.
Van Wilder then resumed pacing for his teammate, as Evenepoel then attacked with 4.4km to go, with Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) shortly latching himself to the wheel of the Belgian Nationwide Champion, neutralising the assault because the group continued to whittle down.
Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) then took his likelihood, getting a sizeable hole on the opposite contenders, as Evenepoel tried a counter-attack which dropped Brandon McNulty.
Because the American tried to chase again on, his compatriot Jorgenson moved to the entrance of the group to attempt to prolong the hole to the maillot jaune, as he trailed McNulty by simply 23 seconds in the beginning of the day.
Vlasov managed to carry off the chasing group to take the victory, while Evenepoel gained the dash behind forward of Vlasov’s teammate Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe), as they swept up the remaining bonus seconds on the road.
McNulty managed to restrict his losses to 19 seconds to Jorgenson, as he maintained his total lead by simply 4 seconds.
RESULTS: PARIS-NICE, STAGE SEVEN, NICE > LA MADONE D’UTELLE (104KM)
1. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Bora-Hansgrohe, in 2:44:03
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) UAE Staff Emirates, +8s
3. Primož Roglič (Slo) Bora-Hansgrohe
4. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek
5. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, all at similar time
6. Santiago Buitrago (Col) Bahrain Victorious, +13s
7. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Staff Emirates, +27s
8. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +31s
9. Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +36s
10. Luke Plapp (Aus) Jayco AlUla, +40s
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE SEVEN
1. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Staff Emirates, in 25:00:28
2. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +4s
3. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek,+35s
4. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Fast-Step, +36s
5. Luke Plapp (Aus) Jayco AlUla, +47s
6. Primož Roglič (Slo) Bora-Hansgrohe, +1:21
7. Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, +1:42
8. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:43
9. Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +1:53
10. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Bora-Hansgrohe, +2:05
