Tadej Pogacar clinched victory in the Paris-Nice race on Sunday after winning his third stage of this year’s event.
The two-time Tour de France winner, 24, was racing in the eight-day event for the first time.
He finished alone on the Riviera city’s iconic Promenade des Anglais to beat France’s David Gaudu by 53 seconds, with last year’s Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark in third.
“It was always my dream to win Paris-Nice,” said Slovenia’s Pogacar.
“The competition here was really huge. To be alongside David Gaudu and Jonas Vingegaard on the podium is special.”
Pogacar has changed his schedule this season in a bid to regain the Tour title he let slip to Vingegaard in 2022.
The UAE Team Emirates rider was leading Paris-Nice going into Sunday’s mountainous stage in the Nice backcountry and made a solo break on the final climb.
“I really know these roads,” said the Monaco resident. “I knew exactly how my legs were on the final climb. I was really good with maths today. I calculated it great.”
Pogacar won stages four, seven and eight, with the sixth cancelled because of dangerously high wind speeds between Tourves and La Colle-sur-Loup.
