Paris-Nice stage 8: Matteo Jorgenson rides to overall victory as Remco Evenepoel wins stage

Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) sealed overall victory in Paris-Nice on Sunday, finishing the stage in second just behind winner on the day Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) after the pair distanced overnight leader Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates).

After going away with Evenepoel and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) earlier in the day, Jorgenson survived all of the Belgian’s attempts to shake him off, sticking with him all the way to the finish to secure the biggest victory of his career.

Vlasov was dropped in the final 25km but held on to take third, as the rest of the race came in in dribs and drabs at the end of a tough and wet final day.

The final stage was finely poised for a GC shake-up, with Jorgenson starting the day just four seconds adrift of overnight leader McNulty, after the two had been neck and neck all week in France.

With the overall win and podium spots all up for grabs, the action started early on the climb-filled stage, with an elite group forming before even half the stage had been completed.

The decisive action kicked off on the fourth climb of the day, as Evenepoel attacked on the Côte de Peille, over 40km from the finish, with Jorgenson and Vlasov quickly following, and putting McNulty in trouble.

With no allies in the chase behind, McNulty struggled to chase, and the leaders soon built up more than a minute’s lead over the yellow jersey, riding Jorgenson into the virtual lead which became official on the finish line in Nice.

"To be honest, no," a near-speechless Jorgenson said when asked if he thought he could win Paris-Nice before the race.

"Honestly, never. Until this year, I never would have believed that this was possible, but here we are.

"It couldn't have gone any better today, and the whole week. It hasn't really sunk in yet to be honest. I could barely sleep last night, I was so nervous and felt – for the first time in my life – pressure. To have it come together like that, and to ride in with such a champion like Remco, it was just a really special moment."

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Remco Evenepoel wins stage 8 of Paris-Nice

A typically attritional day in the climbs around Nice

On the short but punchy and decisive 109km final stage of Paris-Nice, it didn’t take long for the first attacks to come. Victor Campanaerts (Lotto Dstny) initially attacked with Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) and Johan Jacobs (Movistar) in the first 5km, before quickly dropping his companions on the of the first of six climbs on the route, the Côte de Levens, to go solo.

On the Côte de Levens, more attacks began in the peloton, which saw a chasing group emerge. They tried to close in on Campenaerts on the Côte de Chateauneuf, but didn’t quite make the junction and regrouped with the peloton.

On the descent from the second climb, a crash saw Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) and Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) abandon the race as the wet roads and tense racing took its toll.

Soon after the crash, on the Côte de Berre-les-Alpes with 64km to go, the peloton split once again, with a group of 22 favourites forging on, including race leader McNulty, Jorgenson, Evenepoel, Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe), Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek).

With Mads Pedersen taking up pacing duty in support of Skjelmose, this group quickly closed in on Campenaerts, whose gap tumbled rapidly to just a few seconds as they hit the Côte de Peille with 47km to go. On the base of the climb, Evenepoel was the first to put in an acceleration, but he was easily followed by Jorgenson and the rest of the favourites.

Evenepoel wasn’t keen to sit back, though, pushing again just a kilometre later – this time still not getting away solo, but putting more riders in trouble in the rapidly shrinking group. The Belgian attacked yet again going into the final 2km of the climb, taking Jorgenson with him, and soon they were joined by Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), who distanced the yellow jersey McNulty, who had to chase alone. Behind McNulty was a four-man group of Skjelmose, Roglič, Plapp and Cristian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan).

Cresting the climb, the gaps were only slim, with the three leaders just 12 seconds ahead of McNulty, who was soon joined by the third group on the descent. After this regrouping, the leaders began to extend their lead, with a relative lack of cohesion in the chase whilst the trio were all motivated to forge on, with Jorgenson in particular chasing a possible overall victory.

Atop the shortened Col d’Eze climb, Jorgenson sprinted to take bonus seconds, extending his lead in the virtual overall and putting seconds into Evenepoel. By this point, the yellow jersey was now more than a minute down on the leaders, making Jorgenson’s win look likely with still 23km to go.

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Jorgenson and Evenepoel push on on the Côte de Quatre-Chemins

On the final climb, the Côte de Quatre-Chemins, Evenepoel set the pace uphill and dropped Vlasov from the group, but Jorgenson remained glued to the Belgian’s wheel. As the road flattened on the run-in towards Nice, Jorgenson began to smile in anticipation of his victory, and sat back as Evenepoel sprinted to victory on the line.

The end of the stage confirmed Jorgenson’s first WorldTour stage race victory, taking home the best young rider’s jersey at the same time, whilst Evenepoel moved up to second and sealed both the polka dot and green jerseys. McNulty limited his losses enough to hold on to third and finish on the final podium.