2021 Paris-Nice Stage 6 Results & Recap
Stage 6 of the 2021 Paris-Nice is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Roglic on his way to Paris Nice coronation \nBy Clara Beard
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) took over the helm of Paris Nice and plans to captain his Jumbo Visma crew all the way to victory after an impressive display of power and strength on stage 6. The Vuelta a Espana champion easily overtook Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) and Michael Matthews (Bike Exchange) in today's finale, winning the 202km race with a shout of celebration over the line.
"To win like this is something new again and I’m glad I could do it," Roglic said. "For sure it was nice to see my family and get their support and to have the legs to win the stage today. It was just a full gas day, very hard from the beginning that’s why I’m also glad I won it. We’re all tired and it was beautiful that I could do it here. I have to deal with the change of courses and I don’t really care about it. For sure they will be two crucial stages like always at the end. I just expect full gas racing because they are quite short both of them so it will be pretty exciting. My focus is on myself, if I can stay focused with the whole team then it should be fine normally."
Roglic continues to lead the Race to the Sun by 41 seconds ahead of defending champion Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe). Ion Izagirre (Astana-Premier Tech) is third, 50 seconds back. Izagirre moved up to third after Brandon McNulty (UAE Emirates) was forced to abandon following a crash.
After a fast start that saw plenty of early attacks, Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Victor Campenaerts (Qhubeka-Assos), Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Jonathan Hivert (B&B Hotels) and Julien El Fares (EF Education-Nippo) quickly established themselves in the breakaway, and Perez went on the hunt to pad his lead in the KOM competition.
"If you look at my face, you can see that I’m even more shattered than yesterday," Perez said. "We’ll see tomorrow. It was super hard to get into the breakaway and I was surprised I was able to do it. I had the legs but you need a little bit of luck. Once in the front, it was a long day with the headwind and Alexey and Kenny pulling very hard and I had to work hard to stay with them but luckily they were not fighting for the polka-dot. I didn’t check the course, I will see tonight what we’re supposed to do. I’m glad to have held that jersey, and I’m even happier to keep it another day and who knows, maybe to keep it until Nice."
The break held it together until 25km to go, when some returned to the peloton, sensing the pending catch. Elissonde continued solo with a slim margin of just 40 seconds over the Quick Step led peloton. The French climber was joined by Jonas Rutsch (EF Education-Nippo), but didn't have the legs to stay with the German when the road pitched up. Despite a solid effort, Rutsch was caught in the final kilometre and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) started the sprint for the line first. No one could stay with Roglic, however, and the Slovenian claimed victory yet again at Paris Nice. \n
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