Nairo Quintana flew up the final 5km of La Colmiane on stage seven of Paris-Nice and took a well deserved victory after falling out of GC contention with a crash in the crosswinds.
But it was Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) who was turning heads. The breakaway king decided to head into the days break with riders such as Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step), who was throwing it all on the line to try and take GC victory.
De Gendt put in a fantastic performance though, taking eight Strava KOMs along the way. From 20km in to 40km in, where the breakaway was forming, the bearded Belgian averaged 388 watts with a peak of 1,009w before tackling the Col de Vence, holding 576w for 30 seconds.
On La Colmiane, the final climb, the multiple Grant Tour stage winner achieved a similar average power of 364w, strangely when De Gendt attacked Alaphilippe to go on alone, his power dropped but his pace rocketed from 23kph to 45kph at its peak before settling back down to a solid tempo.
De Gendt didn't take the stage which was eventually taken by Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), who apparently broke the record for the fastest ascent, but sadly Quintana doesn't use Strava.
The current Strava record, like most major climbs in the region, is held by Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), which was set on Saturday as Pinot chased Quintana for stage honours.
Tiesj Benoot (Team Sunweb) attacked late on the try and steal the overall title away from Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) but was unable get the time needed despite flying up the last 3km of the climb.
Benoot missed out on the overall by 18 seconds in the Strade Bianche winners first Paris-Nice, he was a major rider throughout the week, kicking off attacked on stage one with Alaphilippe, getting third on that day.
>>> Five talking points from Paris-Nice 2020
He went on to take the green points jersey thanks to his late attack and victory the day before on stage six in what was a Team Sunweb masterclass.
Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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