Round up of the 2012 edition of the Paris-Nice
The 70th version of the Paris-Nice started off on March 4th and the eight-staged race concluded on March 11th in Nice.
It is the second World Tour race of the 2012 season after the Santos Tour Under(Jan 17-22).
All the 18 World Tour teams were automatically invited to the event including ,Team Ag2r-La Mondiale, Team Astana, BMC Racing Team, Team Euskaltel-Euskadi, Team FDJ-BigMat, Team Garmin-Barracuda and Team GreenEdge.
Team Lampre-ISD, Team Liquigas-Cannondale, Team Lotto-Belisol, Team Movistar, Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Team Rabobank will also ride the event.
Team RadioShack-Nissan-Trek, Team Katusha, Team Saxo Bank, Team Sky and Team Vacansoleil-DCM all showed their brilliance at the French race.
Team Saur-Sojasun, Team Project 1t4i, Team Cofidis and Team Europcar were the four non-World Tour teams that received the invitation through the wild card entry.
British cyclist Bradley Wiggins grabbed the overall victory at the race. He achieved the top overall position during the stage 2 and continued his dominance till the last stage.
He thanked the whole Team Sky squad for supporting him throughout the eight-staged race.
"It was a very tough final time trial and I knew that Westra was very strong but in terms of pressure it was nothing compared to an Olympic track final”.
“You can enjoy the moment. I was confident of my ability and I rode it perfect", he told BBC after the final stage.
"I know the history of the sport and to be on that list and to become the second Brit after Tom Simpson to win Paris-Nice means a lot for me”.
Wiggins finished second during the first individual time trial stage, third during the fifth stage and first during the 9.6 kilometre final stage of the French race.
Swedish cyclist Gustav Larsson started off the tour in style and overcame Wiggins after a close encounter.
Levi Leipheimer, Tejay van Garderen and Thomas De Gendt claimed the third, the fourth and the fifth positions during the opening stage of the race.
Belgian cyclist Tom Boonen succeeded during the second stage of the race after an impressive sprint towards the final kilometres of the stage.
He completed the 185.5 kilometre pursuit to Orleans in a fastest time of 4 hours, 22 minutes and 15 seconds.
Jose Joaquin Rojas and John Degenkolb finished at the second and the third positions after the stage 2 classifications.
Alejandro Valverde bagged his second stage win of the 2012 season during the stage 3 of the Paris-Nice 2012.
Belgian cyclist Gianni Meersman registered his first World Tour victory of the season during the fourth stage of the French event.
Wiggins finished at the third position and continued his dominance at the overall classifications.
He was 6 seconds ahead Levi Leipheimer of Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step after the stage 4 classifications.
Lieuwe Westra, Luis Leon Sanchez, Thomas De Gendt and Bradley Wiggins claimed the fifth, the sixth, the seventh and the eighth stages of the race respectively.
Bradley marked a perfect start to his season with the overall victory and is optimistic to continue his winning momentum during the coming races of the year.
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