7. Etappe: Nice – Auron – 109Km

The organizers of Paris-Nice have been closely monitoring the weather conditions in the Alpes-Maritimes department throughout the week. These conditions remain unfavorable for Saturday, particularly at higher altitudes. To ensure the riders‘ safety, the decision to modify the route of stage 7 has been made in agreement with the city of Nice, the Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur, the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture, and in consultation with the panel of commissaires from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), as well as representatives of the teams and riders (A.I.G.C.P, C.P.A).
The arrival set in Auron remains unchanged, but safety conditions are not met to cross the Col de la Colmiane and use the following downhill.

Thus, the riders will skip the Côte de Belvédère and the Col de La Colmiane and go straight after 55.8 km to continue through the Var Valley and then the Tinée Valley.
They will rejoin the originally planned route shortly before Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée for the final 32.5 km of this stage.
Stage 7 will be 109.3 kilometres long instead of 147.8 kilometres.

1 Storer Michael Tudor Pro Cycling Team 60 02:43:31
2 Schmid Mauro Team Jayco-AlUla 40 + 20
3 Steinhauser Georg EF Education-EasyPost 30 + 30
4 Romeo Iván Movistar Team 25 + 45
5 Jegat Jordan Team TotalEnergies 20 + 50
6 Gall Felix Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 15 + 57
7 Martinez Lenny Bahrain Victorious 10 + 01:04
8 Lipowitz Florian Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe 8 + 01:11
9 Champoussin Clément XDS Astana Team 5 + 01:14
10 Pedersen Mads Lidl-Trek 2 + 01:14
11 Sheffield Magnus INEOS Grenadiers + 01:14
12 Jorgenson Matteo Team Visma | Lease a Bike + 01:14
13 Arensman Thymen INEOS Grenadiers + 01:14
14 McNulty Brandon UAE Team Emirates-XRG + 01:14
15 Almeida Joao UAE Team Emirates-XRG + 01:14
16 Castrillo Pablo Movistar Team + 01:17
17 Tarling Joshua INEOS Grenadiers + 01:17
18 Paret-Peintre Aurélien Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team + 01:26
19 Tejada Harold XDS Astana Team + 01:26
20 Armirail Bruno Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team + 01:34

Gesamt:

1 Jorgenson Matteo Team Visma | Lease a Bike 23:37:42
2 Lipowitz Florian Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe + 37
3 1 Arensman Thymen INEOS Grenadiers + 01:20
4 9 Storer Michael Tudor Pro Cycling Team + 02:25
5 Almeida Joao UAE Team Emirates-XRG + 02:40
6 1 Sheffield Magnus INEOS Grenadiers + 02:54
7 1 McNulty Brandon UAE Team Emirates-XRG + 03:05
8 1 Champoussin Clément XDS Astana Team + 03:22
9 3 Foss Tobias INEOS Grenadiers + 03:28
10 Tejada Harold XDS Astana Team + 03:36
11 1 Castrillo Pablo Movistar Team + 03:47
12 1 Van Wilder Ilan Soudal Quick-Step + 04:09
13 2 Paret-Peintre Aurélien Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team + 04:50
14 Martin-Guyonnet Guillaume Groupama-FDJ + 05:26
15 2 García Raúl ARKEA-B&B HOTELS + 06:16
16 Schachmann Max Soudal Quick-Step + 06:48
17 1 Barta William Movistar Team + 06:57
18 1 O’Connor Ben Team Jayco-AlUla + 07:20
19 1 Goossens Kobe Intermarché-Wanty + 08:39
20 3 Martinez Lenny Bahrain Victorious + 09:48
21 Zimmermann Georg Intermarché-Wanty + 10:00

Storer roars in Auron

A short, explosive stage from Nice to Auron saw Michael Storer (Tudor) rise to victory at the summit. The Australian climber attacked early in the day and proved to be the strongest in a 15-man breakaway that also featured Julian Alaphilippe, who gave his all to lead his teammate toward the stage win and the 4th position in the general classification. In 2nd place in the overall standings, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) gained 3 seconds on Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), who retains the yellow and white jersey on the eve of the final stage around Nice. Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) is now 3rd (+1’20’’) after Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) crashed out of the race. This is Storer’s 7th professional victory, the 5th on French roads and the 3rd in the UCI World Tour after he took two stages of La Vuelta 21 in similar fashion.

The peloton of the Race to the Sun faces the final weekend with two decisive stages that will crown the overall winner of the 83rd edition. First, Saturday’s course takes them to the Auron ski resort, atop a 7.3-km climb with an average gradient of 7.2%. 129 riders enjoy a sunny start from Nice as they head for the snowy mountains.

Big battle for the break
Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) accelerates as soon as the flag drops. His move is followed by a flurry of attacks, and the first climb of the day, the cat-2 Côte d’Aspremont (summit at km 19.6), becomes the perfect launchpad for many more attackers.
After 17 kilometers, two groups merge to form the 15-man break of the day with Kelland O’Brien, Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Josh Tarling (Ineos), Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Ivan Romeo (Movistar), Julian Alaphilippe, Michael Storer (Tudor), Johan Jacobs, Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Neilson Powless, Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), Clément Izquierdo (Cofidis), Alexandre Delettre and Jordan Jegat (Total Energies).

Skjelmose goes down
Visma-Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek and UAE Team Emirates-XRG take turns at the front of the peloton to control the gap. The situation changes after Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) crashes out of the race with 52 km to go. The Danish climber is taken to the hospital after hitting the ground on his right hip.

The gap goes up to 3’10’’ (km 68) before new faces up the ante in the bunch. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Bahrain Victorious and XDS-Astana collaborate to bring the gap down to 1’45’’ at the bottom of the climb to Auron.

Storer rises
Michael Storer sets the pace at the front. Mauro Schmid is the last rider to keep up with the Australian climber, who eventually went solo inside the last 2.5km. Never looking back, Storer takes the stage win and also moves from 13th to 4th in the overall standings.

Behind him, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) shake the GC group. The Austrian climber finishes 6th (+57’’), ahead of the French youngster (+1’04’’). Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) follows with a gap of 1’11’’, just 3 seconds ahead of the rest of the GC contenders.