The eight climbs in the queen stage of Paris-Nice didn’t scare off Thomas De Gendt. He attacked immediately after the start. Together with Antoine Duchesne and Chris Anker Sørensen he had a maximal lead of over eight minutes. De Gendt took the maximal points on the first seven climbs.

The Canadian Duchesne had to let go of the other two with more than fifty kilometres to go. Thirteen kilometres from the end, after 190 kilometres in front, the adventure of De Gendt and Sørensen came to an end as well.

Today’s finish was on the Croix de Chaubouret, a climb of ten kilometres. It took a while before there was a serious attack. Teammates Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas arrived together at the finish, Porte won. Tony Gallopin finished in the first chase group and was seventh, a nice result. Tim Wellens arrived in a next group as fourteenth. Thanks to his strong performance Gallopin is now sixth in GC. Thomas De Gendt is the new leader in the KOM classification. He has a total amount of 36 points, that’s fifteen more than Philippe Gilbert.

“I always have a nice time when I am in a breakaway. I can choose my own tempo and the climbs gave distraction in the longest stage of this week. The goal was to take over the polka dot jersey. I succeeded, unfortunately the stage win was not possible. With only three riders the group was too small to make it till the end, especially after Duchesne was dropped with fifty kilometres still to go. Of course I had to continue to pick up KOM points,” Thomas De Gendt told the Lotto Soudal website.

“It should be possible to keep this jersey. The stage on Saturday is the most dangerous one,  there are many points to gain. If I can join a breakaway again then, I can’t lose the jersey anymore.  Tomorrow’s stage starts with a first category climb. If the situation is good, I’ll aim for the points but afterwards I’ll take it easy to save energy for the next day.”