Tadej Pogacar blitzes field with dominant win to take Paris-Nice title from David Gaudu and Jonas Vingegaard

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) took a dominant victory on the final stage of Paris-Nice to win the title for the first time in his career, as he underlined his status as the rider to beat in men’s cycling. It was Pogacar’s third stage win in a row as he won Paris-Nice at the first time of asking, having opted to compete in Tirreno-Adriatico in recent years. Ad He took the stage victory by 33 seconds from Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), and was 53 seconds ahead of the latter in the final overall standings.

Paris — NiceParis-Nice Stage 8 highlights as terrific Tadej Pogacar roars to first titleAN HOUR AGO “I always feel I’m good in the first races,” said Pogacar. “It was always my dream to win Paris-Nice. The fact I did it is incredible.

“They say attack is the best defence. I really know these roads. I’ve done a lot of training here.

I knew exactly how my legs were on the final climb and how much [energy] I could spend to get to the top. “I had good maths today, I calculated it great! If I don’t win anything until the end of the season it’s still not bad so I can be more relaxed.” Pogacar carried a 12-second advantage over Gaudu and 58 seconds to Vingegaard coming into the day but added two seconds to his lead when he came third at the intermediate sprint. Uno-X pair Jonas Gregaard and Alexander Kristoff were in the breakaway, with the former wanting to win the King of the Mountains classification.