Paris-Nice 2012: Thomas de Gendt repeats his victory in Houdan in the race to the sun

Added: saturday 10 March 2012 at 23:04:00

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The longuest stage of Paris-Nice 2012 took place today between Sisteron and the usual stage finish on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.

Longuest stage but also breakaway with the biggest break since it went up to values above 12 minutes for the two leading riders. Finally, Thomas de Gendt managed to get away alone and thus won this 7th stage, in the same way as when he won the first stage of Paris-Nice 2011 in Houdan!
The summary of the 7th stage of Paris-Nice 2012 - Sisteron > Nice
This morning at the start of the stage in Sisteron, 5 riders were said to not take the start: Leigh Howard (GreenEDGE), Rémy di Gregorio (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne), Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing Team), Lars Bak (Lotto-Belisol) and Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun) were no longer part of the peloton which was thus reduced to 151 riders.

Quite quickly after the start, while the peloton was going rather quickly, the Dutch rider Roy Curvers (Project 1t4i) and the German Christian Knees (Team Sky) were added to the list of riders who abandoned the race.

As Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) said this morning at the start in Sisteron, a bunch sprint wasn't really probable. The French rider more though of a breakaway to go on till the finish.
Many riders must have heard this message because it never really stopped attacking at the start of the stage. It was however only at kilometer 50 after the start thatRein Taaramae (Cofidis), victim of a crash just before, and Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) really get away from the peloton and from their this leading duo gets a time gap which had never been seen beofre in this edition 70th edition of Paris-Nice.
On top of the Col des Lèques, De Gendt crossed the line before Taaramae and it was only at 8'25" that his team mate Frederik Veuchelen, who's currently wearing the polka dot jersey, gets in 3rd position to obtain some additional points which allow him to secure this jersey (indeed, he took a sufficient number of points to be sure not to loose it anymore, except if he doesn't finish this Paris-Nice team trial and if you miss it, you let me know).

On the Col du Luens, the order in which the two leading riders cross the finish line was the same again but behind them, and intermediate rider, Evgeni Petrov (Astana), took the 3rd place, at 10'50" from the leading duo, followed 1'10" later by the peloton and again Frederik Veuchelen in the lead. While the Russian rider throws himself in the descent, looking for the two riders ahead, Peio Bilbao (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Denis Menchov (Katusha Team) decided to call it an end as well form them in this Paris-Nice 2012.

On top of the Côte de Peyroules the order in which the riders cross the line is still the same, knowing that the leading duo was there 10'45" before the Russian rider and 12'40 before the peloton. The time gap is at its highest there and the leading duo starts thinking about a potential victory on the Promenade des Anglais. It was thus not really surprising that, after the intermediate sprint in Tourettes-sur-Loup, won by the Belgian rider, Thomas de Gendt tries to get rid of his Estonian mate in the breakaway when they are approchaing the Col de Vence. Taaramae than tries to continue alone but doesn't manage to do so either. De Gendt tries again and finally manages to get away. On top of the Col de Vence he starts the descent with a 12 seconds gap. While the peloton gets there, with Luis Angel Maté (Cofidis) leading, at 11'35", the Belgian rider continues to improve the gap with Taaramae.

While Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) crashes three times and thus definitely loses his third place in the general classification, Thomas de Gendt clearly goes on to victory, witgh a time gap of 2'50" on Taaramae at 20 kilometers from the finish and even 4'30" at 5 kilometers from the goal.

It was thus in the same way as last year in Houdan that De Gendt wins a stage, with a much bigger margin this time, while Rein Taaramae finally end on the 2nd place at 6'18". John Degenkolb (Project 1t4i) won the sprint of the peloton at 9'24", ahead of Greg Henderson (Lotto-Belisol).
The photos of the 7th stage of Paris-Nice 2012 - Sisteron > Nice
A selection of 90 photos of this stage are now online.

If you'd like to see them, you can click on the link below:

>> the photos of the 7th stage of Paris-Nice 2012 between Sisteron and Nice
The classifications of Paris-Nice 2012 after the 7th stage
Le résultat de la 7ème étape Sisteron > Nice
Here's the top 10 of this 7th stage of Paris-Nice with big time differences on the finish line:

1/ Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - 5h11'48"
2/ Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - +6'18"
3/ John Degenkolb (Project 1t4i) - +9'24"
4/ Gregory Henderson (Lotto-Belisol)
5/ Thor Hushovd (BMC Racing Team)
6/ Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team)
7/ Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team)
8/ Simon Clarke (GreenEDGE)
9/ Xavier Florencio (Katusha Team)
10/ Grega Bole (Lampre-ISD)

Levi Leipheimer ended finally, with 3 of his team mates, at 16'50" from today's winner while a group of 14 riders ends at 20'26".
The general classification
Except from Levi Leipheimer disappearing from the top 10 of the general classification, the top 10 of this classification doesn't change:

1/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 27h53'04"
2/ Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - +0'06"
3/ Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) - +0'18"
4/ Simon Spilak (Katusha Team) - +0'37"
5/ Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) - +0'39"
6/ Maxime Monfort (Radioshack-Nissan) - +0'46"
7/ Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ BigMat) - +1'06"
8/ Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +1'16"
9/ Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) - +1'21"
10/ Angel Vicioso (Katusha Team) - +2'24"
Classification by points
No changes in the top 5 of this classification, not in positions nor in number of points:

1/ Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) - 74 points
2/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 67 points
3/ Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - 63 points
4/ Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) - 52 points
5/ Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 50 points
King of the Mountains classification
Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) now definitively got the polka dot jersey on his shoulders. His team mate Thomas de Gendt and Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) arrive in the top 5 of 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/ David Le Lay (Saur-Sojasun) - 20 points
5/ Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - 20 points
5/ Bart de Clercq (Lotto-Belisol Team) - 15 points
Best young rider
Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) is still the best young rider the day before the final finish of Paris-Nice 2012 on top of the Col d'Eze.

1/ Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) - 27h53'43"
2/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) - +2'55"
3/ Davide Malacarne (Team Europcar) - +6'48"
4/ Romain Sicard (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +7'07"
5/ Dominik Nerz (Liquigas-Cannondale) - +8'59"
by Thomas Vergouwen
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| Roland TISSIER | sunday 11 March 2012 at 8:59:52