Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic held on to win the Paris-Nice race despite a late push from Britain’s Simon Yates, who won the final stage to finish as runner-up.
Yates, who had 47 seconds to make up on Roglic, launched a solo breakaway with 19km to go.
He led the stage by 25 seconds at the top of the final climb before a downhill finish into Nice.
Roglic finished safely in third, nine seconds behind Yates, with Jumbo-Visma team-mate Wout van Aert in second.
Officially, Yates made up 18 seconds on the Slovenian during the final stage rather than nine – having gained 13 bonus seconds to Roglic’s four.
Yates had 10 seconds removed from his time for taking the stage and another three for winning an intermediate sprint during the race. Roglic’s four bonus seconds came for finishing third.
It meant that, in the final overall standings, Yates finished 29 seconds behind the winner.
Roglic, who sealed a 10th World Tour race win, was indebted to team-mate Van Aert for helping him to reel Yates back in when the overall title was starting to look in the balance.
“I don’t go without a bit of drama,” said three-time Vuelta winner Roglic. “It was so steep and so hard. A big thanks to Wout. He can do anything – he’s half human, half motor.”
Yates acknowledged that as his final-stage lead opened up, he was starting to think about the overall title.
“It’s always on your mind when you start getting ahead,” said Simon, after finishing runner-up for a second time in the race after 2018.
“But I’m more than happy with the stage win.”
Yates’ twin brother Adam finished the rainy stage in eighth, to seal fourth place in the general classification, with Colombian Daniel Martinez in third.
Pogacar wins third race of the season
Elsewhere, Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar retained the Tirreno-Adriatico title, with Germany’s Phil Bauhaus winning the seventh and final stage in Italy.
Slovenia’s Pogacar, 23, who retained the UAE Tour title last month, was in a commanding position after winning stage six on Saturday and finished safely in the peloton.
He added this win to the his Strade Bianche success to notch three wins already this campaign.
The Team UAE rider finished one minute 52 seconds ahead of Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard with Spain’s Mikel Landa third in the overall standings.
“I enjoyed this stage but I was focused until the end because you never know what happens. It’s not finished until you cross the line,” said Pogacar.
“I’m super happy, any race we can win we’re happy. So far so good, we’ll see in the next races,” added the two-time Tour de France champion.
