Belgium’s Thomas de Gendt won the seventh and penultimate stage of the Paris-Nice race in a breakaway on Saturday as Briton Bradley Wiggins kept the overall lead for a sixth straight day.
The rolling 219.5km trek from Sisteron to Nice featured four climbs and was the hardest and longest leg of the week-long race.
The 25-year-old Belgian jumped out early in a two-man break with Rein Taaramae — together building a nearly 13 minute lead on the pack — and then outclassed the Estonian on the day’s big climb, the category one Vence pass.
Photo: AFP
“In Col de Vence, I asked Taaramae to take his turn and he wouldn’t,” de Gendt said about who would lead into the wind, according to the race Web site. “It got on my nerves and that’s how I went.”
By the end, de Gendt beat Taaramae by 6 minutes, 18 seconds. John Degenkold of Germany placed third, 9 minutes, 24 seconds back, leading a bunch sprint in the trailing pack — which included Wiggins.
Wiggins, a 31-year-old former track specialist and Olympic champion, appears well-positioned for the final time trial — a 9.6km run from Nice to the Col d’Eze. Wiggins won last year’s Criterium du Libere, but crashed out of last year’s Tour de France with a broken collarbone.
Overall, the Briton leads Dutch rider Lieuwe Westra, who is in second place, by six seconds, and Alejandro Valverde of Spain trails third — 18 seconds back.
The day’s biggest loser was Levi Leipheimer. After starting the stage in third overall, the 38-year-old American had three crashes. The last came after he rounded a downhill curve and rear-ended an Omega Pharma-Quickstep teammate, who hit the motorcycle of an escort policeman, with sparks coming off Leipheimer’s bike as he fell.
While he got back up, Leipheimer appeared demoralized and straggled across the finish line 16 minutes, 50 seconds behind de Gendt, tumbling to 39th place overall — 7 minutes, 36 seconds behind Wiggins.
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