Dorian Godon delivers Ineos Grenadier’s second stage win of Paris-Nice
Jonas Vingegaard hols on to race lead as stage is slashed to 47km
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Frenchman Dorian Godon delivered Ineos Grenadier’s Paris-Nice second stage win as out-sprinting his rivals after a drastically shortened stage.
It was Godon’s first win since joining the team this year.
Ineos Grenadiers also won the team time trial on stage three.
Article continues belowThe British-registered squad led out the sprint and delivered Godon to victory over Biniam Girmay (NS) in second and Cees Bol (Decathlon CMA CGM) in third.
The stage had been shortened due to snow and rain falling at the original finish at the Auron ski resort. Instead, the stage finished in Isola-Village at the base of what was the final climb.
Then the morning of the stage it was cut further down from 120km to just 47km as the wind and rain battered the course.
That made the course, the fourth shortest ever Paris-Nice road stage, mostly uphill, albeit gently, all the way to the finish.
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The lone break of the day was Tim Marsman (Alpecin-Premier Tech) who clipped off the front of the bunch after 10km.
His effort was always futile and after just over an hour of racing the bunch passed under the flamme rouge with Ineos Grenadiers at the front.
Godon was dropped off with a couple of 100m to go and never relinquished his spot at the front despite Girmay closing on him.
The stage had been shortened due to snow and rain falling at the original finish at the Auron ski resort. Instead, the stage finished in Isola-Village at the base of what was the final climb.
Then the morning of the stage it was cut further down from 120km to just 47km as the wind and rain battered the course.
That made the course, the fourth shortest ever Paris-Nice road stage, mostly uphill, albeit gently, all the way to the finish.
The lone break of the day was Tim Marsman (Alpecin-Premier Tech) who clipped off the front of the bunch after 10km.
His effort was always futile and after just over an hour of racing the bunch passed under the flamme rouge with Ineos Grenadiers at the front.
Godon was dropped off with a couple of 100m to go and never relinquished his spot at the front despite Girmay closing on him.
There were several crashes on the wet roads in the final 10km. Stage 6 winner Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) was among those that came down but he kept his place in the top 10 on GC due to only falling within the final three kilometres.
Yellow jersey wearer Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) came through unscathed and has to only survive one more stage to take home his first Paris-Nice title.
He told broadcasters at the finish: “Obviously they want to have a stage, but I think there could have been something different, maybe we could have stopped a bit earlier because in the end it was a bit slippery, there were some big crashes. If we had stopped 10km earlier there wouldn’t have been any problem at all.”
Asked how he was he added: “I’m fine, I backed off at the right moment… I hope everyone who crashed is ok.”
Result
Paris-Nice, Stage 7: Pont Louis Nucera > Isola (47km)
1. Dorian Godon (Fra) Ineos Grenadiers, in 1:01:48
2. Biniam Girmay (Eri) NSN Cycling Team
3. Cees Bol (ned) Decathlon CMA CGM
4. Laurence Pithie (NZl) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
5. Luke Lamperti (USA) EF Education-EasyPost
6. Mike Teunissen (Ned) ADS Astana
7. Jensen Plowright (Aus) Alpecin-Premier Tech
8. Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step
9. Matteo Trentin (Ita) Tudor Pro Cycling
10. Samuel Watson (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, all at same time
General classification
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 22:18:38
2. Dani Martínez (Col) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +3:22
3. Georg Steinhauser (Ger) EF Education-EasyPost, +5:50
4. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Ineos Grenadiers, +6:09
5. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious, +7:37
6. Marc Soler (Spa) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +8:15
7. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Cofidis, +9:02
8. Mathys Rondel (Fra) Tudor Pro Cycling, +10:06
9. Alex Baudin (Fra) EF Education-EasyPost, +10:16
10. Harold Tejada (XDS Astana), +11:27
Having trained as a journalist at Cardiff University I spent eight years working as a business journalist covering everything from social care, to construction to the legal profession and riding my bike at the weekends and evenings. When a friend told me Cycling Weekly was looking for a news editor, I didn't give myself much chance of landing the role, but I did and joined the publication in 2016. Since then I've covered Tours de France, World Championships, hour records, spring classics and races in the Middle East. On top of that, since becoming features editor in 2017 I've also been lucky enough to get myself sent to ride my bike for magazine pieces in Portugal and across the UK. They've all been fun but I have an enduring passion for covering the national track championships. It might not be the most glamorous but it's got a real community feeling to it.
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