Daniel Martinez wins Queen stage in Paris-Nice, Egan Bernal takes GC lead
Mar 16 2019 11:49 pm CET
Paris-Nice
EF Education First's Daniel Martinez has taken the victory of the Queen Stage of Paris-Nice. The rider crossed the mountain finish ahead of Miguel Angel Lopez, Simon Yates and Nicolas Edet.
The Queen stage of the French race was 181.5 kilometres long from Nice to the Col de Turini, featuring a finish on a first category climb. Around 30 kilometres into the stage, a group of 31 riders managed to break free and included favourites like Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Daniel Martinez (EF Education First), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) and Sergio Henao (UAE Team Emirates), among many others.
Of the favourites, only Sunweb and Sky didn't have any riders in front. During the penultimate climb of the day, several riders were dropped from the front group until only around 15 remained.
With 10 kilometres to go, Yates attacked and was followed by Lopez, Henao, Martinez and Edet. Some kilometres later, the rider of Astana tried his luck again and Edet stayed at his wheel. At 5 kilometres from the end, Lopez was left riding in front by himself.
Meanwhile, at one minute from the front rode a small group that included Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) and was putting at risk the leader's jersey of Michal Kwiatkowski, who was still with the peloton at more than five minutes from the leaders.
In the next kilometre, the chasers caught Lopez and several attacks followed. At two kilometres from the end, Yates changed the pace and was followed by Martinez and Lopez while Edet seemed to struggle to come back but did so eventually.
Back in the peloton, Kwiatkowski struggled to keep the pace at the last climb. In the front group, Edet launched the next attack but couldn't get rid of the company and soon Martinez made a new move and was soon joined by Lopez while Yates and Edet were left behind.
The two Colombians tried their chances and Martinez made a final acceleration that Lopez couldn't equal. The rider of EF Education First crossed the finish line by himself and was followed by Lopez, Edet and Yates and took the first victory of his professional career.
Team Sky's Egan Bernal took the lead of the overall classification and sits 45 seconds ahead of Deceuninck-Quick-Step's Philippe Gilbert.
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