Richie Porte wins Paris-Nice 2015 by beating everyone else on the Col d'Eze

Added: sunday 15 March 2015 at 16:39:00

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The very last stage of Paris-Nice 2015 took place this afternoon under a bit of rain on the climb of the Col d'Eze as an individual time trial of 9.5 kilometers starting in Nice.

Separated for 36 seconds from the yellow jersey Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Belisol) at the start, Richie Porte was despite this gap the big favourite to win the race, like in 2013 when he already won the Race to the sun.
The summary of the 7th stage of Paris-Nice 2015: the individual time trial Nice > Col d'Eze
The first rider to start at 12.31OPM was Stijn Vandenbergh (Etixx-QuickStep) and the Belgian rider clocked in a time of 23'37" on top, while Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), the World Champion time trial, decided not to give another ride to the Jaguar with the rainbow colours: indeed, the British rider didn't start the race today.

Several riders went under this first time and Sergio Paulinho (Tinkoff-Saxo) was the first rider to go under 22 minutes, with a time of 21'56". Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), wearing the polka dot jersey as the leader of the King of the Mountains classification, showed that he really deserved to win this classification, since he improved this time with no less than 37 seconds (21'19").

After him Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Garmin) and Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) improved the best time even further, respecitvely in 21 minutes and 20'52". In the top 10 of the general classification, Simon Spilak (Team Katusha) improved this time even further, ending his individual effort in 20'36" and the suspense was then at its maximum in the battle for the yellow jersey between Richie Porte (Team Sky) and Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), separated for 36 seconds, which is much and not much at the same time!

Richie Porte didn't improve the time he set in 2013, which was 19'16", but that's not surprising due to the weather conditions, but he ended the climb in 20'23" which was quite a performance anyway and it allowed him to await Tony Gallopin's arrival on top rather confidently! The French rider finally ended only at the 29th place of this individual time trial, at 1'39" from the Australian rider and Richie Porte thus again wins the Race to the sun!
The final classifications of Paris-Nice 2015
Here are the classifications after this last stage of Paris-Nice 2015:
Stage classification Nice > Col d'Eze
The top 5 of this individual time trial between Nice and the Col d'Eze was as follows:

1/ Richie Porte (Team Sky) - 20'23"
2/ Simon Spilak (Team Katusha) - +0'13"
3/ Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) - +0'24"
4/ Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) - +0'29"
5/ Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep)
General classification
This individual time trial largely influenced the general classification of Paris-Nice 2015 where the top 5 completely changed:

1/ Richie Porte (Team Sky) - 29h10'41"
2/ Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep) - +0'30"
3/ Simon Spilak (Team Katusha)
4/ Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida)
5/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - +0'41"

Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) drops back just outside this top 5: he ends the race at the 6th place at 1'03" behind Richie Porte !
Points classification
The points classification was won by Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE):

1/ Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 38 points
2/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha) - 32 points
3/ Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep) - 24 points
4/ José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team) - 23 points
5/ Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) - 22 points
King of the Mountains classification
The polka dot jersey of the leader of the King of the Mountains classification stayed on the shoulders of Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) since the 4th stage of this Paris-Nice and the Belgian rider defended his first place in this classification until the very end in yesterday's stage:

1/ Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) - 78 points
2/ Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team) - 21 points
3/ Chris Anker Sørensen (Tinkoff-Saxo) - 21 points
4/ Lars Boom (Astana Pro Team) - 20 points
5/ Richie Porte (Team Sky) - 16 points
Young riders classification
Among the youngsters, Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep) showed the whole week long that he's a name to remember for the upcoming races!

1/ Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep) - 28h50'19"
2/ Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) - +1'23"
3/ Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) - +2'16"
4/ Wilco Kelderman (Team LottoNL-Jumbo) - +2'51"
5/ Bob Jungels (Trek Factory Racing) - +12'06"
The photos of the Nice > Col d'Eze time trial
The photos of each of the riders in the climb of the Col d'Eze have been published in the corresponding photo category:

>> see the photos of the Nice > Col d'Eze time trial in Paris-Nice 2015
by Thomas Vergouwen
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