Grappling slowly but surely his delay on the Andean climber, he ended up joining him three kilometers from the goal before beating him in a sprint on the misty heights of the Principality of Monaco.
Far behind this mano a mano, the Frenchman Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) took third place at 25 seconds, while his teammate Thibaut Pinot, released much earlier, finished at almost seven minutes.
During this cold cloudy day in the Nice hinterland, Wellens was able to count on the support of a luxury teammate, Caleb Ewan.
The Australian sprinter, winner on Friday at La Seyne-sur-Mer (Var), rode his leader's yellow jersey at the head of the peloton until 14 kilometers from the finish.
Hunter behind a breakaway of five riders then tightrope walker in the descent of the Col de Châteauneuf (km 118), he reduced the peloton to a trickle before moving away.
Quintana launched his attack from the first very steep slopes of the Col des Quatre Chemins, a prelude to the Col d'Eze.
He was joined late and furtively by Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), who could not keep up.
Conversely, Wellens took advantage of the last more rolling kilometers to catch up with the Colombian, and snatch the stage victory and the leader's jersey from under his nose.
The Wellens-Quintana match is not over yet.
To decide between the two men, classified at the same time, it was necessary to take into account their places on the first two stages (12th and 1st for the Belgian, 17th and 2nd for the Colombian).
And there is still a third and last day difficult to define on Sunday, between Villefranche-sur-Mer and Blausasc in the Alpes-Maritimes.
It promises to be nervous and short (112.6 km), with the major difficulty being the Col de Saint-Roch (2nd cat.) 32 kilometers from the goal.
© 2022 AFP