The Slovenian relegated a first group of pursuers including Frenchman and Dane Jonas Vingegaard to 33 seconds on Sunday.
The Slovenian harvest. The day after his second success of this Paris-Nice, Tadej Pogacar tripled the bet, Sunday March 12, by winning during the final stage of this 2023 edition around Nice. Starting alone in the climb of the Col d’Èze about twenty kilometers from the finish, the leader of UAE-Emirates offered himself a solo victory on the Promenade des Anglais, 33 seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo- Visma) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ)
For his first participation, the 24-year-old runner won the general classification of the “race to the sun”. David Gaudu finished second (+53”) ahead of the last winner of the Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard (+1’39”). At 24, “Pogi” also won the white jersey for best youngster and the green of the points classification.
Pogacar’s offensive strategy
After a physical start to the race during which the Danish climber Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X) went to secure his polka dot jersey – the only crumb left by Pogacar on this 81st edition – an extremely reduced peloton came back on the lead less than 70km away. of arrival. Despite 12 seconds ahead of David Gaudu on Sunday morning, Tadej Pogacar opted for an offensive strategy in order to defend his leader’s jersey.
By setting a fast tempo at the head of the peloton, the Slovenian UAE-Emirates team only gave Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) a good exit, who never counted more than 35 seconds in advance in head. So much so that Pogacar allowed himself to accelerate to take a better bonus (-4 “overall) than the Frenchman from Groupama-FDJ (2”) in the intermediate sprint of Èze.
Wout Poels picked up before the final climb to the Col d’Èze (6km at 7.6% average), Tadej Pogacar shot his last card – his luxury Austrian teammate Felix Grossschartner – to further wring the yellow jersey group from the first slopes. Before a hellish kilometer at 14% where Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) tried to isolate the best to finally be countered by the double winner of the Tour de France.
Starting alone 4km from the top of the pass, i.e. 20km from the finish on the Promenade des Anglais, “Pogi” did not get up and widened the gap to finally count 33 seconds ahead of a quartet made up of David Gaudu, Simon Yates, Dane Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and American Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) on the line.
Gaudu solid second
The French rider, clearly the strongest of the pursuers, did try to come back to the future winner by attacking but it was a waste of time. The fact remains that by finishing this Paris-Nice 2023 in second place overall (at 53 seconds) and by never being let go by Pogacar before this last stage, David Gaudu showed that he had passed a milestone.
The first Frenchman to finish the “race for the sun” in second place since Sandy Casar in 2002, the leader of Groupama-FDJ offered himself the luxury of dominating the outgoing winner of the Tour, Jonas Vingegaard, over a week. If the realities of March are not necessarily those of July, the Breton will certainly be among the favorites of the Grande Boucle this summer.