Winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2020, Primoz Roglic offers himself a second success in the Classics with this victory in the Paris-Nice race. The Slovenian kept the yellow jersey during the 8th and last stage of this 80th edition, Sunday March 13, 2022. He succeeds the German Maximilian Schachmann, crowned in 2020 and 2021.
He didn’t give in. Well positioned in the title race after his victory in the 7th stage on Saturday, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) knew he would be attacked on the final stage on Sunday by Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco), his runner-up. The Briton tried his luck and even crossed the finish line first in Nice, but Roglic was able to preserve most of his lead to defend the yellow jersey which he had seized on Thursday March 10.
The help of his Belgian teammate Wout van Aert was invaluable. Primoz Roglic indeed suffered on the last climb, losing a few seconds to an attacking Yates. The damage was eventually dealt with through good team strategy, with Yates scratching just nine seconds to the finish.
Triple winner of the Tour of Spain in 2019, 2020 and 2021, Olympic time trial champion in 2021, the Slovenian adds a second Classic to his list. He had already won the Liège-Bastogne-Liège race in the fall of 2020. Today, he is the first runner from his country to write his name on the Paris-Nice prize list. The last two editions had been won by the German Maximilian Schachmann.
Simon Yates must once again settle for second place, as in 2018. That year, he lost his yellow jersey during the final stage for four seconds in favor of the Spaniard Marc Soler. On Sunday, he gleaned the stage victory alone but finished 29 seconds behind Primoz Roglic in the general classification. Colombian Daniel Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) ranks third.