display

Levens (AP) - Maximilian Schachmann looked into the air in disbelief, the prevented Tour winner Primoz Roglic experienced a disappointing déjà vu:

The German classic specialist surprisingly defended his title on the traditional Paris-Nice tour and caught the leader Roglic on the last day.

On the podium, the bearer of hope from the Bora-hansgrohe team shone with his yellow jersey, flowers and a plush lion.

display

On the previous Sunday, on the 93 kilometers from Plan-du-Var to Levens, Schachmann had crossed the finish line with the leading group, to which the fallen Roglic did not belong.

In the closing stages, the 27-year-old confidently parried all attacks by his opponents, who wanted to grab the winner's jersey in the absence of Roglic.

Tenth place in the daily standings was a minor matter when the title was defended in the south of France - Schachmann is the first German to win the tour twice.

The so far so sovereign Roglic had to feel after three stage wins and the clear lead like in the Tour de France 2020, when he gave his lead to compatriot Tadej Pogacar in the mountain time trial on the penultimate day of the competition.

Schachmann, on the other hand, is in top form ahead of a series of important spring classics and can hope for further successes in the big races in March and April.

This distinguishes his 2021 coup from the one a year ago: In March 2020, the cycling scene was stopped for several months immediately after Paris-Nice by the corona pandemic.

Roglic suffered abrasions in his fall on the final day and could no longer keep up with the high pace in the final phase of the race.

There was also a mechanical problem.

The lead of almost a minute was no longer worth much, in the end the Slovenian ex-ski jumper was passed through.

Behind Schachmann, Alexander Vlasow from Russia and Ion Izaguirre from Spain completed the podium in the tour.

display

The long-distance journey had not ended in Nice that year.

The background is the corona protective measures in France.

Since sunny weather was reported for Sunday, large crowds of people should be avoided at the planned final location on the coast.

While Roglic ended Paris-Nice on Sunday disappointed, tour winner Pogacar put on another furious show on the Tirreno-Adriatico tour, which was taking place at the same time.

In the final phase of the 205-kilometer section from Castellalto to Castelfidardo he chased after solo runaway Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) and ended up just ten seconds behind the cross-country champion, who collapsed completely exhausted at the finish.

He clearly leads in the overall standings.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210314-99-818609 / 4

display

7th stage Paris-Nice

8th stage Paris-Nice

Overall classification Paris-Nice

Data on Max Schachmann

Data on Primoz Roglic