Team RadioShack rider Andreas Klöden shook off his reputation as a non-sprinter when he proved quickest of an eight man breakaway group in Paris-Nice today. Led out by team-mate Janez Brajkovic, the German rider gauged his finishing effort well and just held off Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) at the finish in Vernoux-en-Vivarais.
Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) and race favourite Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) were third and fourth, the latter giving up on any chance of a stage win when he drove the pace in the closing kilometres to ensure that the group would gain as much time as possible over those behind.
Several other general classification riders made it into the leading octet, namely Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne), Robert Kiserlovski (Pro Team Astana), Brajkovic and 2010 stage winner, Xavier Tondo Volpini (Movistar Team). These were the strongest of the main field on the final climb of the day, the category 1 Col de la Mûre, and worked together on the descent to the finish to make certain that they would stay clear.
Klöden was very satisfied to take his first victory since the stage five time trial in the 2009 Tirreno-Adriatico. He celebrated the moment of taking both the stage and the yellow jersey, but was quickly thinking about the next stage and trying to defend his lead.
“Tomorrow is a hard time trial and also the last four days were very hard and nervous,” he said at the finish, according to Eurosport. “I hope the legs stay like this and I can also do a good time trial.”
His chances of retaining yellow were aided by the fact that several other strong contenders all lost time on the mountainous 193 kilometre stage. This dents their chances of overall success. The 2009 champion Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Rabobank Cycling Team) missed the split on the Col de la Mûre and conceded 18 seconds.
He was just ahead of a group containing some serious names, including Chris Anker Sörensen (Saxo Bank Sungard), Ryder Hesjedal (Team Garmin-Cervélo), Bradley Wiggins (Sky Procycling), Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Fränk Schleck (Leopard Trek), Michael Rogers (Sky Procycling), Levi Leipheimer (Team RadioShack) and Roman Kreuziger (Astana). These riders are still close enough to be in contention, but competitors such as Sanchez, Martin and Tondo will be of greater immediate concern to the new race leader.
Overnight leader Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil) never looked comfortable on the stage and cracked on the final climb. He finished over fifteen minutes back.
Early breaks soften up peloton:
The stage was the first serious showdown of this year’s race, featuring as it did seven categorised climbs. The first big move of the stage went clear on the first of two category one climbs, the Col de la Croix de Chaubouret, when Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) surged ahead and crested the summit 35 seconds ahead of four chasers. These were Hubert Dupont (AG2R La Mondiale), Christophe Le Mevel (Garmin-Cervelo), Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ) and David Lopez Garcia (Movistar).
They merged and then Romain Hardy (Bretagne-Schuller) bridged up and together they built a minute’s advantage by the top of the next climb, the cat 3 Côte de Saint-Jeure-d'Ay. The lead increased after that point, then the group split on the second category Col de Montreynaud. There Westra pushed ahead to take the prime, ahead of Lopez Garcia and Dupont, while the others went back to the bunch.
Westra picked up top points on the next two climbs, while Lopez Garcia was caught by the bunch. The leaders were finally reeled in inside 40 kilometres remaining.
A seven man break moved clear on the descent of that climb, the Col de Comberon, and included yesterday’s stage winner Thomas Voeckler (Vacansoleil). Also present were Yuriy Trofimov (Katusha Team), Simon Spilak (Lampre - ISD) and the FDJ quartet of Pierrick Fedrigo, Sandy Casar, Cédric Pineau and Jérémy Roy. However they were caught by the start of the day’s last climb, the Col de la Mûre.
Big showdown for climbers:
Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) had been expected to try to win the race, but he threw down the gauntlet at the start of the climb, put himself into the red and blew up. He appeared to be riding for his team-mate Roman Kreuziger, but the latter was unable to get clear. Robert Kiserlovski was more successful, bridging up to a move by Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil-DCM).
Behind, Tejay Van Garderen was riding hard in the services of his HTC Highroad team-mate Tony Martin. The latter was able to respond when Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) surged clear, as were Tondo, Klöden, Brajkovic, Sanchez, Kiserlovsky and Carrara, and together these eight pulled ahead of the rest of the race. They worked well together to stay ahead to the finish and fight it out for the stage win.
Sanchez looked like he was launching an attack with one kilometre to go but choose his moment badly and nearly crashed; he then waited for the sprint, where it was expected that he would be quickest. However nobody told Klöden, who surprised many – and probably himself, too – when he was able to hold off the Olympic champion and scoop both the stage win and the yellow jersey.
He’s now got a four second lead over Sanchez heading into tomorrow’s time trial Carrara is six seconds back, with the others from the break at eight seconds. Martin appears perfectly poised to push for the race lead, but Klöden will fight all the way.