Roglic asserts his dominance
March 12 th 2022 - 14:55
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) tamed the ascent of the Col de Turini to win stage 7 of Paris-Nice 2022, on Saturday. The Slovenian star, who already led the overall standings, attacked 6km away from the summit and controlled his rivals on the final slopes. A strong kick eventually allowed him to power to his 4th stage win in the Race to the Sun, ahead of Dani Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers), winner at Col de Turini in 2019. Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) joins them on the stage and overall podiums. Roglic’s rivals have 115.6km to turn the race upside down with the many traps of the final stage around Nice.
It’s an early start from Nice for the 103 riders still in the race after the withdrawals of Max Walscheid (Cofidis), Yevgeniy Fedorov (Astana-Qazaqstan), Kevin Geniets, Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ), Geoffrey Soupe, Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) and Dimitri Claeys (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux). The possibility to battle for victory on the slopes up Col de Turini attracts many attackers, from the start.
At km 5, 18 riders have opened a gap of 20’’ to the peloton: Ryan Mullen (Borah-Hansgrohe), Fabio Felline (Astana-Qazaqstan), David Gaudu, Olivier Le Gac, Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Julien Bernard, Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Michael Morkov (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Ivan Garcia Cortina, Gregor Muhlberger, Albert Torres (Movistar), Cees Bol, Nico Denz (Team DSM), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Simon Carr, Julius van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), Franck Bonnamour, Alexis Gougeard (B&B Hotels-KTM).
An all-day battle
Ineos Grenadiers and Arkea-Samsic quickly get into action and control the gap early in the stage. The attackers’ lead reaches 1’55’’ atop the first climb of the day, côte de Coursegoules (km 55), summited first by Denz. The gap drops down to 1 minute on the downhill.
The attackers’ advantage remains stable on the valley leading to the climb of Turini. Gaudu, Pedersen, Bol, Van den Berg and Le Gac are distanced before they reach the bottom of the final ascent: 14.9km with an average gradient of 7.3%. The breakaway explodes on the first slopes. Five riders quickly get away: De Gendt, Bernard, Bonnamour, Pacher and Muhlberger. The latter goes solo with 10.5km to go.
Yates attacks, Roglic dominates
Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) is the first rider to attack from the GC group, with 7.5km to go. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) reacts and counter-attacks 6km away from the summit. He quickly catches and drops Muhlberger. Dani Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) is the only rider able to join Roglic at the front.
Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) and Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) join them at the front just inside the last 3km. The British climber accelerates twice, Quintana struggles to keep up but he manages to get back on each occasion. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) also managed to join them with 250m to go. But nobody could keep up when Roglic powered to victory.
