Sergio Henao wins Paris-Nice by two seconds after thrilling final stage

Team Sky's Sergio Henao won Paris-Nice 2017 by just two seconds following an astonishing stage eight that Trek Segafredo's Alberto Contador was virtual leader of until the final kilometre.

Credit: cyclingnews.com
Quick-Step Floors' David de la Cruz won the stage ahead of two-time Paris-Nice winner Contador, who after attacking with 50kms to go was virtual race leader until the closing kilometres when Henao managed to claw back vital seconds to win Team Sky's fifth Paris-Nice title in six years by four different riders.

"With what was happening, I thought about what happened last year with Thomas," reflected Henao, "It was basically the same situation so I couldn’t help but think about it."
"Last year I was there to help Geraint [Thomas], so that meant I knew how to deal with that sort of stress.
"I panicked a little bit when the gap was over a minute and I wasn’t receiving any help from the other teams.
"But it was simple: what I needed to do was an uphill time trial and give all I had on the descents. I knew it would be difficult, and that I would have to fight until the final metre."
"I had a go today and it was very close", said a deflated Contador, "it's a shame I didn't manage to do it. I'm happy because I put on a great show, the team was great, the race was a spectacle and I'm proud of what I did out there. It's easy to follow the wheels and finish on the podium but I prefer to risk everything to try and win".

Stage winner de la Cruz said; "When I took Contador's wheel I had to suffer a lot and when I saw we weren't being caught I tried to help him. With 3km to go I assessed the situation and managed myself as much as possible for the victory."

Stage eight, a hilly 115km out and back course from Nice, will go down in the annuls of WorldTour and Paris-Nice history as one of the greatest races we've ever seen.

Contador, aided by domestique Jarlinson Pantano, placed an audacious attack at 50km to go and joined the initial 24 man break. Just over 20km later the break had been reduced to 14 riders and had 45 seconds on Henao and therefore putting the Spaniard in the virtual yellow jersey.

Onto the final climb of the day - the 3.7km long Col d'Eze - Contador really put the hammer down with a couple of compatriots awheel; David de la Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) and Marc Soler (Movistar). Henao was demonstrably struggling with the pace and had lost his two remaining team mates and the time gap gaped to over a minute.

Rider after rider was attacking Henao, trying the crack the Colombian champion and open up a GC place, but the resilient Team Sky man did his utmost to stay on the wheels his nearest challengers.

With ten km remaining Henao knew he was within seconds of losing the yellow jersey and was committed fully on the downhill section back into Nice. The gap was coming down slowly but had he left it too late and did he have enough energy to keep up the effort?

Henao and Contador were giving absolutely everything as the final five km ticked down, with the time gap fluctuating and swinging back and forth in favour of each with every passing metre.

De la Cruz took the win after a minor uncontested sprint against Contador with Soler in third and all that remained was to start the clock and wait for the finish time of Henao.

Henao came in with the rest of the GC contenders 20 seconds after Contador, clinging onto the yellow jersey by the skin of his teeth, becoming only the second ever Colombian to win Paris-Nice after Carlos Betancur in 2014.

The top ten of general classification are as follows;
Sergio Henao (Team Sky)
Alberto Contador (Trek Segafredo) - 2"
Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) - 30"
Gorka Izaguirre (Movistar) - 1:00
Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) - 1:22
Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) - 1:34
Jon Izaguirre (Bahrain-Merida) - 1:41
Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb) - 4:07
Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) - 4:39
Richie Porte (BMC Racing) - 14:26

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