Two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador of Astana won the Paris-Nice race on Sunday for his second win in the event, three years after his first.
Frenchman Amael Moinard of Cofidis won the final stage, a 119km ride around Nice.
Contador’s fellow Spaniard Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d’Epargne was second overall 11 seconds adrift with outgoing champion and teammate Luis Leon Sanchez third at 25 seconds.
PHOTO: EPA
On the day, Moinard saw off another Frenchman, Thomas Voeckler, with the pair having embarked on a long escape for the line.
Valverde headed the peloton as he came in third for the stage ahead of Irishman Nicolas Roche and Estonian Rein Taaramae.
Contador held on for his win despite the best efforts of Valverde and Sanchez to eat into his lead on the tough Eze climb.
Contador’s group managed to stay within around 20 seconds of Moinard and Voeckler as the riders hit the summit of the climb about 16km out from the finish.
Moinard, 28, gave the French fans their second stage winner of the week after William Bonnet took stage three at Limoges.
Contador said he was delighted to have notched his second season win after the Tour of the Algarve.
The Paris-Nice “is like a mini-Tour in the sense that you constantly have to control it.”
“I think a number of people had doubts over my team but whether the team is strong or not the course is still very difficult to control. I took good decisions [and] this was a good tune-up before the Tour,” the Spaniard said.
BUMRAH WATCH: Captain Jasprit Bumrah left the SCG for scans for back spasms and although he returned to the ground, there was no word on if he would play Rishabh Pant’s blistering counterattack yesterday capped a chaotic second day of the fifth and final Test between Australia and India, with 15 wickets falling and the star bowler of the series leaving the Sydney Cricket Ground with an ambulance escort. Yet the Border-Gavaskar trophy still remains very much in the balance as India reached 141-6, holding a 145-run lead over Australia with three days remaining. “Low-scoring games like this, it just heightens the pressure within it, so long way still to go,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. “There’s gonna be plenty of cricket, so we’ll see what happens.” Australia were bowled out for
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek yesterday beat Elena Rybakina in straight sets to take Poland into the final of the mixed-teams United Cup with victory over Kazakhstan. Last year’s runners-up face the US today for the title in Sydney after they beat the Czech Republic in the other semi-final. “This win makes me really proud,” Swiatek said after seeing off Rybakina 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to give Poland an unassailable 2-0 lead in the tie. It was a statement of intent from the world number two with the first major of the year to start on Jan. 12. “It is perfect preparation for the
Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Jiang Xinyu of China yesterday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, while Naomi Osaka retired from the women’s singles final with an abdominal injury. Second seeds Wu and Jiang defeated Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US 6-3, 6-4 on ASB Tennis Centre’s Stadium Court in 1 hour, 5 minutes. The WTA 250 victory was 25-year-old Wu’s second WTA Tour title, after winning the 2023 Hua Hin Championships in Thailand with Taiwanese partner Chan Hao-ching. Later that year, Wu and Taiwan’s Hsu Yu-hsiou won the mixed doubles gold at the World
RSS