The Slovenian “falls” twice: the stage goes to Cort Nielsen, the race to the German Schachmann who had already won in 2020.
Two crashes, one at the start of the stage (where he hit his left side) and one 25 kilometers from the finish (right side and elbow) cost Primoz Roglic the Paris-Nice, who seemed to be the absolute master of the race after winning three stages, leaving only crumbs to his opponents.
The Slovenian, in this eighth and final stage (Le Plan du Var-Levens) of the “Race to the Sun”— which did not finish in Nice due to the “lockdown” in the Alpes-Maritimes — found himself without a team 20 kilometers from the finish, and his opponents certainly didn’t cut him any slack: Bora, Astana, and Cofidis gave their best effort, and the Slovenian couldn’t catch the group led by Maximilian Schachmann (tenth at the finish line), who thus repeated his success from a year ago.
The last person to win two consecutive editions was Aleksandr Vinokurov in 2002 and 2003. For Roglic, it’s another disappointment after the much more thunderous setback at the Tour, when he lost his jersey in the second-to-last stage, in the time trial at La Planche des Belles Filles.
The Slovenian champion finished more than three minutes behind the Danish winner Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education-Nippo) of the final stage, ahead of Christophe Laporte.
In the final standings, Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) was ahead of Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana) and Ion Izagirre (Astana), with Roglic in 15th at 2’16″.
