Carlos Betancur and his Ag2r team did an excellent job in today's penultimate stage of Paris-Nice when the team defended themselves against the many attacks on the final hilly circuit in Biot. Betancur now only needs to get safely through one stage but he expects world champion Rui Costa to be a fierce rival.

Carlos Betancur never looked to be under pressure in today's penultimate stage of Paris-Nice and he even finished everything off by sprinting to third in the uphill finish in Biot. He now only needs to defend his 14-second lead over Rui Costa in tomorrow's final stage and can expect great help from his teammates.

The team showed great maturity by setting a hard pace on the the finishing circuit to neutralize the many attacks that made for some very aggressive racing. Excellent climbers like Mikael Cherel, Romain Bardet, and Alexis Vuillermoz made sure that Betancur's lead was never under real threat.

Despite the strength of his team, however, Betancur fears what Costa may have in store for him on the final stage in the hills around Nice.

"The whole team fought today so that I can keep this yellow jersey and I really want to thank everyone," he said. "My teammates found physical and mental resources to assist me as the race has once again been very difficult. Roman (Bardet), Alexis (Vuillermoz) and Mikael (Cherel) were still at my side on the final circuit. Personally, I really excellent feel at the moment although I feel tired at the end of a week of racing.

"Tomorrow, my opponent No. 1 for the final victory will obviously be Rui Costa. We need to be vigilant but today the team AG2R La Mondiale again proved that we are capable of doing very good work in this kind of situation.

"We spent a very tough day, there was a lot of pressure on us, but the whole team did a great job, especially in the last kilometers when I received great support while the tension was at its highest. Now we have to stay on our guards tomorrow because some riders are still pretty close. I'm close to victory but it's still a dream. It would be an enormous satisfaction to win this race, one of the greatest in the world.

"At the moment, I live a dream. Being leader of Paris - Nice is a great joy and I hope everything will be fine tomorrow, also for everybody in Latin America. This year I'm better prepared than last year and I've done things that give me a chance to write my name in cycling history. The team told me that Paris - Nice was a great race with beautiful finishes that would fit me. They support me very well and everything is going well. We need to get through tomorrow. it will be very hard, and with the team we will do everything to win."

"Obviously Lampre proved they were strong today by working for Rui Costa," manager Vincent Lavenu said. "They are the toughest team and the one  we will have to check most closely. The pressure was enormous today but I guess we managed to control the race pretty well. Romain Bardet again did a hell of a job in the finale. I hope Carlos will be as strong as he has been all week. It's very important for us to win Paris-Nice, because it's a race we never managed to win in the many years we've been around."

You can read our preview of the final stage here. You can follow our live coverage of the stage at 15.15 CET on CyclingQuotes.com/live.