La Bollène-Vésubie (France) (AFP) - Primoz Roglic launched the final, decisive attack up the biggest climb on this year's Paris-Nice to win the seventh stage and tighten his grip on the race lead on Saturday.
One after another, the Slovenian's main rivals attacked on the 15-kilometre ascent of Col de Turini.Each time, Roglic responded.
The Jumbo-Visma rider then attacked himself entering the final kilometre.
At the end of a 155.5km stage that started in Nice, Roglic crossed the line in the only summit finish of this year's race, with Colombian Dani Martinez of Ineos on his wheel and Briton Simon Yates of Bike Exchange two seconds behind.
Nairo Quintana of Arkea was at nine seconds, with Joao Almeida of UAE at 11 seconds.
"I know these roads well, I do them in training," Roglic said, his small son in his arm before stepping onto the podium set up between the patches of snow at the summit.
"A great day," he said."You put a lot of sacrifice into it so when you can finish it off, it's really something great."
Roglic extended his advantage over Yates to 47 seconds and to one minute over Martinez.
The stage had been in doubt because of snow on the final climb.It went ahead on clear road with patches of snow on either side.
"I love snow, but not when I'm on my bike," Roglic, a former ski jumper, said ahead of the stage.
Sunday's final stage starts and finishes in Nice and includes five climbs in the hills around the city on a 115.6-kilometre route.The summit of the last, the Col d'Eze, is only 15 kilometres from the finish.
Last year, Roglic held a 52-second lead entering the final day, when the finish was moved out of Nice because of Covid restrictions, but he crashed twice and finished 15th overall.
"As we saw last year, tomorrow will be a super demanding one," said Roglic.
Rain is forecast for Sunday.
"Everything will depend on the weather, we know that the weather will not be good.I will adapt," said Roglic.
