Marc Soler (Movistar) was rewarded for his long-rage attack in the final stage as he beat Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) by four seconds to win the Paris-Nice race on Sunday.
The Movistar rider jumped away from the group of favorites with more than 50 kilometers left in the 110-km mountainous ride around Nice to take third place in the eighth stage won by fellow Spaniard David de la Cruz of Team Sky.
It gave Soler a four-second bonus that helped him move past overnight leader Simon Yates after the Mitchelton-Scott rider was dropped in the last ascent of the day.
Yates made contact with other favorites in the descent into Nice but finished sixth, 38 seconds behind De La Cruz and second placed Omar Fraile (Astana). He was 35 seconds adrift of Soler.
Another Spaniard, Gorka Izagirre, took third place overall. He was 14 seconds off the pace despite crashing in the final descent, while his Bahrain-Merida team mate and brother Jon ended up fourth.
Paris-Nice 2018 – stage 8 results (Nice – Nice):
| 1 | David De La Cruz (Team Sky) | 2:53:06 |
| 2 | Omar Fraile (Astana) | ,, |
| 3 | Marc Soler (Movistar) | +03” |
| 4 | Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe) | +38” |
| 5 | Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 6 | Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 7 | Dylan Teuns (BMC) | ,, |
| 8 | Richard Carapaz (Movistar) | ,, |
| 9 | Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 10 | Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
Final general classification:
| 1 | Marc Soler (Movistar) | 30:22:41 |
| 2 | Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +04” |
| 3 | Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) | +14” |
| 4 | Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) | +16” |
| 5 | Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 6 | Dylan Teuns (BMC) | +32” |
| 7 | Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe) | +44” |
| 8 | Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R La Mondiale) | +01’54” |
| 9 | David De La Cruz (Team Sky) | +02’15” |
| 10 | Felix Grossschartner (Bora-hansgrohe) | +02’35” |
