OVERALL LEADER PRIMOZ Roglic extended his advantage by winning the sixth stage of Paris-Nice on Friday after the two closing days of racing were re-routed due to the coronavirus situation in southern France.
Jumbo-Visma’s Roglic, a two-time Vuelta a Espana winner, pipped Cofidis’ Christophe Laporte in second and Bike Exchange’s Michael Matthews came third after a tense final climb near the town of Biot.
Slovenian Roglic took his lead in the yellow jersey over German Maximilian Schachmann to 41 seconds with Spaniard Ion Izagirre in third place nine seconds further down.
Ireland’s Sam Bennett came to a standstill on the final climb with 700 metres remaining. He is now in second in the outright classification on 36 points behind Roglic on 42 points but the Irish cyclist has signalled his focus is moving towards next Saturday’s Milan-San Remo.
Earlier in the day, Nice mayor Christian Estrosi announced the route would be altered with the finish outside the city to avoid a local Covid-19 lockdown.
“It’s cool to win like this. It was really hard from the beginning of the day, that’s why I was happy at the end,” Roglic said.
“I have to deal with it (the changes). The stages are quite short both of them and for sure it will be super exciting,” he added.
The race, which traditionally finishes on the Promenade des Anglais, will end on Sunday instead around 40 kilometres north in the town of Levens which is outside the regional quarantine zone.
It will start from the Plan du Var, about 30 kilometres north of Nice, and will take the form of a quasi-loop.
Organising company ASO has yet to publish the technical details.
Saturday’s stage seven, which was due to set off from Nice, will now start from Le Broc and will end as planned in Valdeblore La Colmiane.
The area is under its third weekend lockdown following what the Alpes-Maritime regional authority described as “the continuing very worrying” health situation and “extremely high” pressure on the resources of local hospitals.
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