Paris-Nice | Michael Storer wins snowy finish in Auron; Matteo Jorgenson defends yellow jersey into final stage

Stage 7 of Paris-Nice was shortened due to the cold temperatures and rain, but the peloton still had to face another cold (and even snowy day in the mountains. The victory was for the breakaway here as Michael Storer succeeded from the breakaway, whilst in the peloton Matteo Jorgenson maintained his yellow jersey.

The stage had been shortened due to bad weather, cutting the Col de la Colmiane from the route and leaving a mostly flat run-in to the final climb in Auron under the rainy weather. The short stage led to a very fast start, with a group of 15 riders going up the road including Michael Storer as a minor GC threat; Julian Alaphilippe, Stefan Küng, Joshua Tarling and more.

The peloton rode through all day long but with an extending gap to the peloton. It looked to be a calm approach to the finishing climb on paper but not for everyone, as Mattias Skjelmose crashed, hitting his head hard on the ground and abandoning the race whilst sitting third.

In the first half of the ascent to Auron, in front, Michael Storer kept pushing the pace hard as he aimed to climb up the GC ranks, and also being potentially the strongest climber of the group. Mauro Schmid matched him, whilst behind UAE and then INEOS set a strong pace. With 2.7 kilometers to go Storer's high pace was enough to drop Schmid and the Australian set off on his own for stage victory. Behind, Felix Gall and Lenny Martínez attacked from the GC group.

The Tudor Pro Cycling Team rider net a huge win in the middle of the snow, also climbing up the overall classification, with Mauro Schmid and Georg Steinhauser completing the podium. The main favourites arrived mostly together at the finish line, with no big gaps to note.