Tejay van Garderen said Saturday's cold and wet conditions at Paris-Nice led to his slide down the general classification. The BMC Racing Team's leader conceded nearly five minutes in the 187.5-kilometer race and fell out of the top 10 on the penultimate day of the race.

"On the descent off the Côte de Châteauneuf, I got really cold and I was just shivering," van Garderen said to the BMC website. "I just felt completely blocked. I tried to stay calm and tried to kind of regroup myself in hopes I would come around on the final climb. But once we started it, my legs were not really working.”

"It is a huge disappointment because I came in with high hopes. I had good form. I showed that form a couple days ago. to have a day like today, it was one of those typical bad days that you hope that you don't have. Unfortunately, I had one today. All we can do is try to learn from it and move forward. I feel bad for the team because they've worked hard for me all week and we've done a perfect job."

Escorted to the finish by teammate Philippe Gilbert, van Garderen finished 21st, 4:57 back of solo stage winner Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), who took the overall lead. Van Garderen is 16th, 4:59 back of the lead, heading into the final day's 9.7-km uphill individual time trial.