Tadej Pogacar got here by the “first really difficult” day of his season to take full management of Paris-Nice on Saturday after profitable the seventh stage.
Pogacar is now 12 seconds forward of David Gaudu and final 12 months’s Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard in third, 58 seconds behind within the total standings.
“It was my first really difficult day of the season,” the Slovenian stated. “Coming to final climb everyone was already a bit dead”.
Friday’s sixth stage, which was scheduled to start close to Marseille, was cancelled because of violent winds near the Mediterranean coast.
In calmer situations on the penultimate day, Pogacar made another assertion on the race and the season after additionally clinching stage 4 on Wednesday as he fought off Gaudu and Vingegaard on the ultimate climb after 142.8km within the saddle.
Riding up Col de la Couilloule, with a summit end at 1678m, Pogacar edged his two closest rivals with Gaudu ending two seconds behind and Vingegaard an extra six.
Paris-Nice ends on Sunday with a 117.5km mountainous journey beginning and ending within the southern metropolis on the Cote d’Azur.
“Tomorrow is another really hard day – I think the hardest of the whole Paris-Nice but the climbs are better for me tomorrow,” Pogacar stated. “We try to defend as hard as possible”.
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