Saturday 15 March 2014 at 20h22

Today's stage of Paris-Nice 2014, the 7th of this Race to the sun, took place between Mougins and Biot Sophia Antipolis, with the stage start and finish location being seperated by only 9 kilometers. A race route on different circuits however allowed to create a stage of 195.5 kilometers during which we saw a race unfold really progressively with lots of variation in front of the race before it came back together in the final laps on the circuit around the finish.

Tom-Jelte Slagter (Garmin-Sharp) finally won the stage and thus took his second victory in this Paris-Nice 2014. While his first victory was already considered as the biggest performance of his career, this one made him even happier after his mechanical accident yesterday!

The summary of the 7th stage of Paris-Nice 2014: Mougins > Biot Sophia Antipolis

Right from the 2nd kilometer of this stage, a group of 6 riders got away from the peloton including Laurent Didier (Trek Factory Racing), who initiated this breakaway, but also the Dutch riders Lieuwe Westra (Astana Pro Team), Pim Ligthart (Lotto-Belisol) and Albert Timmer (Team Giant-Shimano) as well as Sylvester Szmyd (Movistar Team) and Florian Guillou (Bretagne-Séché Environnement).

Amaël Moinard (BMC Racing Team) almost immediately started the chase and a bit later he got company from Mathias Frank (IAM Cyling), Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis), Marco Marcato (Cannondale) and Brice Feillu (Bretagne-Séché Environnement). Moinard was the first to start the chase but the rider who knew quite well the roads of this stage was also the first to drop back to the peloton.
While the breakaway continued to increase its gap, the chasing group followed his progression quite well and stayed for quite a while at about thirty seconds from the head of the race. The chasing group then lost another element, with Marco Marcato who couldn't follow the rhythm.

At the intermediate sprint in Tourettes-sur-Loup, the breakaway - in which Pim Ligthart won the sprint - crosses the line 5'40" earlier than the peloton and at the start of the climb of the Col de Vence, the remaining chasing trio got back on the breakaway to form a new leading group with 9 riders. On the top of the climb Pim Ligthart again crossed the line first, thus coming immediately close to the king of the mountains of this race, Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling), with only 1 point difference (the Dutch rider already took 9 points for the King of the Mountains classification in yesterday's breakaway).

At the foot of the second climb, the Côte de Cipières (in its first climb), the gap of the peloton on the breakaway was down to 4'25" and Mathias Frank again didn't manage to stay ahead of Pim Ligthart who again took the points ahead of Chavanel's team mate and thus took the lead in the King of the Mountains classification.

The climbs continued to follow up on each other in today's stage and the breakaway thus gets on the climb towards the Col de l'Ecre (which started with the Côte de Gourdon on top of which additional points for the King of the Mountains classification were awarded at the next crossing) and in this climb the group gets reduced to 8 riders, since it lost Brice Feillu.
On top, Pim Ligthart again takes the points, ahead of Mathias Frank, and the Dutch rider clearly shows his will to take the lead in the King of the Mountains classification. On the way back in the first circuit, the riders get back on the Côte de Cipières and Pim Lightart again takes the points their, again ahead of Frank.

The leading riders go on to the last climb of the day, the Côte de Gourdon (basically the first half of the climb towards the Col de l'Ecre in the previous lap on this circuit) and at the foot of this climb their gap was down to 2'15". On the top Ligthart definitively takes the lead in the King of the Mountains classification and Frank again takes the second place their, thus getting above the leader of his team, Sylvain Chavanel.

At a few kilometers from the first crossing of the finish line, the leading group falls apart and finally only Lieuwe Westra continues the adventure in the lead of the race. On the finish line, at 2 laps from the last crossing, the Dutch rider however only has 3 seconds left on the peloton and just after having crossed the finish line he leaves his place in the lead of the race to David Lopez (Team Sky) who was joined by 7 other riders, including Sylvain Chavanel, Thomas Voeckler, Thor Hushovd and Alessandro De Marchi, before being taken back by the peloton at 32 kilometers from the finish.

Several other attempts took place in the laps of the final circuit but the different small groups which were formed were all taken back and finally the victory was decided in a sprint. Tom-Jelte Slagter (Garmin-Sharp) again showed he was the fastest, finishing ahead of the World Champion, Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), like Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) yesterday. The Colombian rider of the French team keeps the yellow jersey at one day of the final finish of Paris-Nice 2014.

The photos of the 7th stage of Paris-Nice 2014: Mougins > Biot Sophia Antipolis

All day long you've been able to discover the photos of the 7th stage of Paris-Nice 2014. You can now find the complete selection in the dedicated photo section:

>> The photos of the 7th stage: Mougins > Biot Sophia Antipolis of Paris-Nice 2014

The classifications of Paris-Nice 2014 after stage 7

After this 7th stage and at the day before the final finish in Nice, the classifications of this Paris-Nice 2014 are relatively fixed, as you can see below.

Stage classification for the stage 7/ Mougins > Biot Sophia Antipolis

First, here's the top 10 of today's stage:

1/ Tom-Jelte Slagter (Garmin-Sharp) - 5h00'05"
2/ Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida)
3/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale)
4/ José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team)
5/ Arthur Vichot (FDJ.fr)
6/ Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Belisol)
7/ Stefan Denifl (IAM Cycling)
8/ Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
9/ Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team)
10/ Peter Velits (BMC Racing Team)

General classification

Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) ended the stage at the 3rd place and thus took 4 additional bonus seconds. He's now ahead of Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) with a 14 seconds gap and the Portuguese rider should thus take the bonus seconds in the intermediate sprints and at the finish if he'd like to pretend to win this race (this is still possible, for example with a stage victory in Nice which would give him 10 bonus seconds, and 6 bonus seconds which can be taken in the intermediate sprints).

1/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - 32h04'49"
2/ Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) - +0'14"
3/ Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +0'26"
4/ José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team) - +0'27"
5/ Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team) - +0'29"

Points classification

In the points classification, the leader since the 3rd stage, John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano), still risks to lose his green jersey in tomorrow's stage to the Columbian Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale), who only lacks 2 points to get at the same level:

1/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - 41 points
2/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - 39 points
3/ Tom-Jelte Slagter (Garmin-Sharp) - 30 points
4/ José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team) - 28 points
5/ Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) - 26 points

King of the Mountains classification

Thanks to his performance in today's breakaway, Pim Ligthart (Lotto-Belisol) thus becomes the new King of the Mountains with a 19 points gap on his first competitor, Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling), with whom he was in today's breakaway. The Swiss rider should thus arrive first on top of most of the difficulties of the last stage if he wants to take back the polka dot jersey for the Swiss team (even though Sylvain Chavanel could also still take it back because the one who arrives first on top of all difficulties in tomorrow's stage can still take 41 points!).

1/ Pim Ligthart (Lotto-Belisol) - 44 points
2/ Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling) - 25 points
3/ Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) - 20 points
4/ Laurent Didier (Trek Factory Racing) - 14 points
5/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - 13 points

Young riders classification

Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) will logically also win the young riders classification tomorrow, even though the white jersey will still be worn by Sébastien Reichenbach (IAM Cycling, photo) in the last stage.

1/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - 32h04'49"
2/ Sébastien Reichenbach (IAM Cycling) - +0'46"
3/ Bob Jungels (Trek Factory Racing) - +0'57"
4/ Wilco Kelderman (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - +1'05"
5/ Tom-Jelte Slagter (Garmin-Sharp) - +1'37"

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice 2014 | Paris-Nice

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