March 10/20 14:42 pm - Paris - Nice: Stage 3

Posted by Editoress on 03/10/20
 

Garcia Cortina outsprints Sagan to win first Paris-Nice stage

Ivan Garcia Cortina (Bahrain-McLaren) took a revenge of sorts when he won the 212.5 km third stage of Paris-Nice after a long, rainy and windy day. The 24-year-old Spaniard, who finished second behind Dylan Groenewegen in a bunch sprint in Bellegarde a year ago, raised his arms this time, beating Peter Sagan (BORA-hansgrohe) on the line he was going for a repeat of his first stage win from exactly ten years ago. Third place went to Italian Andrea Pasqualon (Circus-Wanty Gobert) while some of the strongest sprinters failed their attempts, especially Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step), who crashed with 500 m to go, and Pascal Ackermann (BORA-hansgrohe), who suffered a mechanical.  

A long day for Devriendt
The start was given at 11:23 to the 133 riders remaining in the race in cloudy, rainy conditions. At kilometre 4, Belgian Tom Devriendt (Circus Wanty Gobert) attacked alone and the peloton did not react. At the first intermediate sprint, he had a 3:20 lead over stage 2 winner Giacomo Nizzolo, who picked two points for the green jersey, and the rest of the peloton. Devriendt’s lead increased steadily and reached a maximum of 9:15 at kilometre 38. The pack, led by BORA-hansgrohe riders, maintained a steady gap of around seven minutes until the first climb of the day.

Hivert takes KOM points
On Cote de la Chapelotte (km 88), polka-dot jersey leader Jonathan Hivert collected two more points to bring his KOM tally to 22. As the direction of the wind changed (km 131), the peloton split after an acceleration at the front of the bunch and some 20 riders found themselves trapped at the back, including green jersey Giacomo Nizzolo and polka-dot jersey Jonathan Hivert. When the bunch finally regrouped, Devriendt’s lead began to dwindle, especially as the leader was halted briefly by a level crossing at kilometre 140.

Devriendt reeled in
Deceuninck-Quick Step, Team Sunweb and Bahrain-McLaren took the lead for the finale run in, maintaining a steady pace which would prove to be too high for Devriendt, who was reeled in with just 25 km to go after spending182 km in the front. The second intermediate sprint in St. Aout, 19 km from the finish, went to world champion Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) ahead of Kasper Asgreen and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step), who maintained a high tempo after the line, splitting the pack. The sprinters teams took turns to lead the pack, setting up the sprint finish. With 5 km to go, a crash in the peloton involved Bryan Coquard, who had just changed bikes with Cyril Gautier after a mechanical.

Garcia upets Sagan
Germany’s Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hasngrohe) also found himself out of contention for the sprint because of a mechanical 4 km from the line. The stage was set for the first bunch sprint of this edition and what a surprising one it was! As Bennett hit the canvas, Ivan Garcia Cortina boldly went for it, quickly overtaking Sagan to clinch his best victory to date after the stage he won in California last year. Germany’s Maximilian Schachmann (BORA-hansgrohe) retained his overall lead ahead of stage 2 winner Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT Pro Cycling) and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo)   

Top Canadian on the day was Antoine Duchesne (Groupama - FDJ) in 54th in the same time as the winner.  Duchesne is also top Canadian in the GC in 44th at 4:27 back.

Results from the third stage of Paris Nice in France