Tadej Pogacar beats Gaudu and Vingegaard to take queen stage victory at Paris-Nice

Tadej Pogacar did it again. Resisting the attacks of David Gaudu and Jonas Vingegaard, he won stage 7 of Paris-Nice with a brutal acceleration towards the end.

An important stage, it saw an 18-rider group go up the road early on. Lucas Hamilton, Kelland O'Brien, Joshua Tarling, Nils Politt, Dorian Godon, Larry Warbasse, Rémi Cavagna, Florian Sénéchal, Pascal Eenkhoorn, Harry Sweeny, Brent van Moer, Jérémy Cabot, Soren Kragh Andersen, Lilian Calmejane, Kobe Goossens, David de la Cruz, Javier Romo and Hugo Houle took to the front. It was a strong group but one that never had much of a leash.

UAE Team Emirates and INEOS Grenadiers controlled the race, with the gap going into 3 minutes at it's maximum. It was a short peloton entering the final climb, as Groupama - FDJ entered in front and then gave way for Tobias Foss to grab the head of the peloton. Kobe Goossens and Javier Romo stood out from the breakaway, resisting the most.

The pace of Foss broke the group throughout many kilometers, eventually reaching around 15 riders resisting. Goossens, the final survivor, was caught with just under 9 kilometers to go. Chris Harper opened things with just under 6, but Jonas Vingegaard shortly after attacked. Tadej Pogacar took the opportunity and launched off the group right after. Gino Mäder was struggling, whilst Daniel Martínez was dropped early and Aurélien Paret-Peintre crashed as the race exploded.

Vingegaard and David Gaudu worked together to make it back to Pogacar with 4 kilometers to go. The Frenchman attacked as the chasing group got close, taking only Pogacar with him. The duo worked together to prevent Vingegaard from coming back. A sprint decided the outcome of the stage, Vingegaard attempted to surprise but nothing could be done, Tadej Pogacar won the sprint whilst Gaudu rode to second place.

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