2013 Paris-Nice

Mar 9: Paris-Nice, Stage 6: Manosque-Nice, 220.5km.

Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma Quickstep) thundered past more favoured riders to give the French crowd on the Boulevard des Anglais an extra reason to cheer. After a tough hilly 220km the stage looked set for a battle between riders like Phillipe Gilbert (BMC), Jose Rojas (Movistar) and Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R) but with a late cheeky surge by Chavanel they were neatly relegated to the also rans.

Sylvain Chavanel outwits foes © TDWSport/OPQS

Chavanel, who is one of the peleton's most versatile riders could be spotted drifiting towards the front in the clsoing kilometres. The race had left the mountain's in Nice's hinterland and in late afternood sunshine was winding itself up along the Boulevard des Anglais. AG2r had a train going in favour of Dumoulin while Gilbert had a BMC teammate fighting for space. Chavanel was lurking in third or fourth place and normally would be expected to stay there but with a powerful acceleration thundered by the leaders. Gilbert, in second looked agonised by what he must have felt a case of theft while Rojas looked content with third.

"I am super happy," exclaimed Chavanel after his win. "It's the second time I won here in Nice, after my victory in 2008. It's always a great emotion to raise the arms here. Today I decided to do the sprint because I was looking for some points for the Green Jersey. There was a head wind in the final, so I asked Kevin De Weert to stay near me. He did a great job and he left me in the perfect position on the wheel of Gilbert and Dumoulin. With the bonification fixation I took, I'm now 3rd. Tomorrow will be difficult for me, but I will try to do my best to stay in the top 10."

"Today is a special day for the team," Chavanel continued. "Kwiatkowski the new leader at Tirreno is great news. I'm happy for him and the team, and I hope he can keep the jersey as long as he can."

Sky, led for the final kilometres by workhorse Vasil Kiryienka, kept race leader Richie Porte out of trouble to keep the yellow jersey. Andrew Talansky (Garmin Sharp) stuck like a limpet to the Tasmanian's wheel as the stage reached its climax, desperate to keep in the hunt for reclaining the yellow jersey after Sunday's individual time trial. He had to say goodbye to the points jersey which shifted to Chavanel. The Frenchman accumulated enough time bonuses from the win and a second place in an intermeduate sprint behind teammate Peter Velits to move into third place on GC 10 seconds behind Talansky.

The finale comes on Sunday with a lung-burting 9.6km uphill sprint from central Nice (32m) to the Col d'Éze (501m).

Stage Results - Top 30

General Classification after Stage 6

Race Route for 2013

2013 Paris Nice route© ASO 2013

Links

2013 Paris Nice Official Website

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