Jonas Vingegaard wins Paris-Nice but loses final stage to Lenny Martinez

Jonas Vingegaard claimed victory at Paris-Nice on Sunday afternoon. In the final stage, the Dane broke away on the Côte du Linguador with Lenny Martinez, who narrowly edged him out in a two-man sprint.

Paris–Nice concluded this year with a tough closing stage of 129.2 kilometers and 2300 meters of climbing around Nice, featuring three challenging ascents along the way. Just before halfway through the race was the Col de la Porte (6.9 km at 7%), followed by the Côte de Châteauneuf-Villevieille (6.6 km at 6.6%) and the Côte du Linguador (3.3 km at 8.8%) in the finale. After cresting the last climb, there were about twenty kilometers remaining to the finish.

In the opening phase of the final stage, there was a fierce battle for the early breakaway. Initially, Tim Marsman, Alexandre Delettre, Benjamin Thomas, Fabio Van Den Bossche, and Matteo Trentin got away, but they were caught before the Col de la Porte.

After that, the stronger climbers took their turn to attack on the first climb of the day: Valentin Paret-Peintre, Nicolas Prodhomme, Jefferson Cepeda, Will Barta, and Marc Soler all made moves on the Col de la Porte, but by the top only Paret-Peintre and Soler remained ahead. On the long descent, Soler was caught, while Paret-Peintre managed to hang on for a while longer.

Bizarre crash for Daniel Felipe Martinez, other Martinez attacks and wins
Towards the finale, Daniel Felipe Martinez, second in the general classification, crashed in a bizarre incident. The Colombian was pushed by teammate Laurence Pithie, which caused him significant pain and he had to chase back on to the group of favorites, where Visma | Lease a Bike was already setting the pace with Bruno Armirail and Victor Campenaerts.

They reeled in Paret-Peintre, after which Vingegaard launched his attack. The Dane quickly pulled away from the rest of the GC contenders—except one: Lenny Martinez had the power to follow Vingegaard all the way to the finish. In a two-man sprint, the Frenchman ultimately took the win. No disaster for Vingegaard: he secured the overall victory.

And Daniel Felipe Martinez? After a determined chase, he still managed to hold his second place in the overall standings.