Two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador of Astana won the Paris-Nice race on Sunday for his second win in the event, three years after his first.
Frenchman Amael Moinard of Cofidis won the final stage, a 119km ride around Nice.
Contador’s fellow Spaniard Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d’Epargne was second overall 11 seconds adrift with outgoing champion and teammate Luis Leon Sanchez third at 25 seconds.
PHOTO: EPA
On the day, Moinard saw off another Frenchman, Thomas Voeckler, with the pair having embarked on a long escape for the line.
Valverde headed the peloton as he came in third for the stage ahead of Irishman Nicolas Roche and Estonian Rein Taaramae.
Contador held on for his win despite the best efforts of Valverde and Sanchez to eat into his lead on the tough Eze climb.
Contador’s group managed to stay within around 20 seconds of Moinard and Voeckler as the riders hit the summit of the climb about 16km out from the finish.
Moinard, 28, gave the French fans their second stage winner of the week after William Bonnet took stage three at Limoges.
Contador said he was delighted to have notched his second season win after the Tour of the Algarve.
The Paris-Nice “is like a mini-Tour in the sense that you constantly have to control it.”
“I think a number of people had doubts over my team but whether the team is strong or not the course is still very difficult to control. I took good decisions [and] this was a good tune-up before the Tour,” the Spaniard said.
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