Paris-Nice 2012: Bradley Wiggins stronger than everyone else!

Sunday 11 March 2012 at 16h03

The 70th edition of Paris-Nice 2012 ended today with a time trial on the Col d'Eze. The final decisive stage wasn't as important as it could have been if the general classification had been different than the one we had. Indeed, Bradley Wiggins ends this solo effort as the fastest man of all riders at the start in Nice and with this stage victory, the British rider also confirmed his yellow jersey and thus the final victory of this race to the sun.

The summary of the 8th stage: Nice > Col d'Eze

Under a bright and shining sun (the race to the sun really corresponded to its surname this year!) the riders started one by one in the streets of Nice at the bottom of the climb to the Col d'Eze.

9.6 kilometers long, this ascent had been qualified as very difficult by many riders, including those at the highest places in the general classification.

The first rider to start at the end of this morning was the last rider in the general classification, the Polish rider Jaroslaw Marycz (Saxo Bank). His time taken on top of the Col d'Eze, 23'32", didn't last long time because quite rapidly Danny Pate (Team Sky), followed in the car by the rider in yellow, Bradley Wiggins, immediately improved this time by 2 minutes (21'29").

The American rider of Team Sky didn't wait very long however because the French rider Jean-Christophe Péraud

of the AG2R La Mondiale team improved his time with almost 2 more minutes (19'45"), a time which allowed him to end this stage on the 3rd place.

The French rider stayed in the first position for quite some time since it was only the forelast rider, Lieuwe Westra, who improved his time with 31 seconds. This was however not enough to wipe out the 6 seconds which separated the Dutch rider from Bradley Wiggins since the latter rider finally won this time trial stage with a 2 seconds better time than Westra. With this performance, the British rider not only keeps the yellow jersey and thus the overall victory of the 70th edition of Paris-Nice but also takes over the green jersey from Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) who ended this stage at the 6th place at 52 seconds.

The photos of stage 8: Nice > Col d'Eze of Paris-Nice 2012

A selection of 129 photos of the 8th stage of Paris-Nice 2012, Nice > Col d'Eze has been published. If you'd like to see them, you can click on the link below:

>> The photos of the stage Nice > Col d'Eze in Paris-Nice 2012

The final classifications of Paris-Nice 2012

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The stage classification for the 8th and final stage - Nice > Col d'Eze

Here's the top 10 of this time trial stage on the ramps of the Col d'Eze:

1/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 19'12"
2/ Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - +0'02"
3/ Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R La Mondiale) - +0'33"
4/ Simon Spilak (Astana) - +0'47"
5/ Jérôme Coppel (Saur-Sojasun) - +0'51"
6/ Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) - +0'52"
7/ Andréas Klöden (Radioshack-Nissan) - +0'58"
8/ David Moncoutié (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - +0'59"
9/ Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD)
10/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) - +1'06"

The final general classification

Here's the top 10 of the final general classification of Paris-Nice 2012:

1/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 28h12'16"
2/ Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - +0'08"
3/ Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) - +1'10"
4/ Simon Spilak (Katusha Team) - +1'24"
5/ Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) - +1'54"
6/ Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ BigMat) - +2'13"
7/ Maxime Monfort (Radioshack-Nissan) - +2'21"
8/ Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +2'42"
9/ Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) - +3'30"
10/ Angel Vicioso (Katusha Team) - +3'59"

Points classification

In the points classification, we saw a last minute change for the leader, thanks to the points awarded to the rider who won today's stage. Indeed, with these points, Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) beat Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) with only a few points and he thus goes home not only with the yellow but also with the green jersey:

1/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 92 points
2/ Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) - 89 points
3/ Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - 85 points
4/ Luis-Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) - 52 points
5/ Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) - 50 points

King of the Mountains classification

As indicated in the summary of yesterday's race, the polka dot jersey could not go to any other rider anymore and the top 5 thus remains unchanged today (even though the official website of the race doesn't show Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) any more in this classification):

1/ Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - 64 points
2/ Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - 42 points
3/ Luis Angel Maté Mardones (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - 28 points
4/ Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - 20 points
5/ David Le Lay (Saur-Sojasun) - 20 points

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Best young rider

Tejay van Garderen goes home with the white jersey for best young rider, while Davide Malacarne leaves his 3rd place to the French rider Romain Sicard:

1/ Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) - 28h14'10"
2/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) - +2'46"
3/ Romain Sicard (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +7'55"
4/ Davide Malacarne (Team Europcar) - +8'53"
5/ Dominik Nerz (Liquigas-Cannondale) - +10'02"

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice 2012 | Paris-Nice