Il Messaggiere - Vingegaard wins Paris-Nice as Martinez claims final stage

Vingegaard had already won two stages earlier in the eight-day race but left his charge for the line a fraction too late in the two-up sprint after the pair had broken away on the final climb of the hilly 145-kilometre eighth stage that started and finished in Nice on the French Riviera.

After the peloton reeled in the last of the day's breakaway riders, Frenchman Valentin Paret-Peintre, Vingegaard attacked 21km from the finish, with only Martinez able to hang onto his wheel.

The Dane crested the final climb, the Cote du Linguador, first to seal victory in the King-of-the-Mountains competition to go with his inevitable overall victory.

But when it came to the sprint finish, Martinez launched his bid for the line early and Vingegaard simply did not have the power to overhaul him.

Still, with three victories from his first eight days of racing this season, Vingegaard is in fine form ahead of his tilt at a Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double.

And having won two of the three Grand Tours -- adding the 2025 Vuelta a Espana to his 2022 and 2023 Tour victories -- he has also now won three of the sport's major one-week stage races -- claiming the Criterium du Dauphine in 2023 and Tirreno-Adriatico a year later.

Colombian Harold Tejada, who won Friday's sixth stage, took third on the day, coming home in a small group seven seconds after the winner.

Fellow Colombian Daniel Martinez, who crashed more than 50km from the finish and lost touch with the leading peloton, battled through pain to limit his losses and came home 51sec back to preserve his second place overall, more than four minutes behind Vingegaard.

German Georg Steinhauser took the final spot on the podium some six minutes off the pace, holding off Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin.

L.Sabbadin--IM