Cycling: In the end it was a show of power by the Australian Richie Porte from Team Sky. He won the final 9,5km mountain time trial at Col d'Èze by 13 seconds over second-placed Simon Spilak. In the overall standings, Porte was now 30 seconds ahead of Kwiatkowski, Spilak and Costa.
The final three stages from Paris-Nice must have felt like a roller coaster for Porte. After the superior victory on Friday in front of his teammate Geraint Thomas, a fall followed on Saturday - so everything came down to the last day, the traditional and exhausting mountain time trial on the Col d'Èze. The pressure on Porte was correspondingly high, after all the big favorite was 36 seconds behind Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) before the last day of racing.
In hindsight, of course, Porte was bothered by the fall on Saturday – his previously razor-thin deficit of one second became more than half a minute: “We threw away time yesterday – in such a good position we both fall, it's so annoying. We drove with too high tire pressure, which was anything but ideal. It felt like driving on an icy road.” so the Australian about the crash on Saturday.
Nevertheless, he went into yesterday's time trial in a reasonably positive mood: “Of course 36 seconds is a lot, but I was in good spirits this morning. With all due respect to Tony [Gallopin], I was hoping he would be a bit tired from his performance yesterday. Also, I ride this climb so often in practice and I think I'm even faster there than I was in today's race.” It quickly became clear that his optimism was fully justified: after 20:23 the clock stopped during his run - he was over 1:30 faster than Tony Gallopin.
Tony Martin also showed a really good performance: He needed 20:52 for the 9,5km and tied the same time with his teammate Michael Kwiatkowski in 4th place. Porte warns the competition in view of the soon to start Giro: "I'm in the best shape of my life right now [...] Last season was hell but now I'm back. Today's win gives me the confidence I need before the Giro. I know I will have a great team there to support me.”
Appreciation Paris – Nice 2015:
[easy table th=“0″]1nd, Richie Porte, AUS, Sky, 29:10:41
2nd, Michal Kwiatkowski, POL, Etixx – Quick Step, 0:00:30
3.,Simon Spilak,SLO,Katusha,
4th,Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa,POR,Lampre-Merida,
5.,Geraint Thomas,GBr,Sky,0:00:41
6th,Tony Gallopin,FRA,Lotto Soudal,0:01:03
7.,Jakob Fuglsang,DEN,Astana,0:01:05
8.,Rafael Valls Ferri,SPA,Lampre-Merida,0:01:24
9th, Gorka Izaguirre Insausti, SPA, Movistar Team, 0:01:38
10th, Tim Wellens, BEL, Lotto Soudal, 0:02:18
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