Simon Spilak (Katusha) almost turned the GC upside down with a very strong attack that forced several teams to chase hard at the end of yesterday's final stage of Paris-Nice. It was not to be for the Slovenian but by picking up three bonus seconds in the final intermediate sprint, he moved himself into 8th in the final GC.

The final stage of the 2014 Paris – Nice, 128 km around Nice went out with a bang on Sunday, as the GC hopefuls continued battling for position all the way to Nice. In the heart of the final action was Katusha’s Simon Špilak, chasing down an aggressive Frank Schleck (Trek Factory Racing) over the top of the Col d’Eze and just getting caught within sight of the finish line. Finally, Simon finished 18th, in the leading group.

“Of course, I am a little bit disappointed because it was a good attack and I was really close to a victory," Spilak sayd. "I missed some luck today. Before the start I knew I have to attack and I did all possible to get the result. The team was great and I felt the support the whole day. So, I tried to attack on the first big climb, but the group caught our escape.

"After, I gave my all on the final climb and on the descent, when I went together with Frank Schleck. Anyway I took 8th place in general classification, that’s not bad. I hope this experience will help me in next races where I hope I be more lucky”.

The stage was won by Arthur Vichot, French Champion from FDJ.fr, who outsprinted Jose Rojas from Movistar and Cyril Gautier from Europcar.

"We had to play our own game and we did a really good stage," said sports director Dmitry Konyshev. "We were in front the whole day, firstly with Alexander Kristoff in the big breakaway, and after it with attacks of Sergei Chernetckii and Iurii Trofimov and, finally, with two strong attacks of Simon Špilak. What a pity, he was really close to a possible stage victory and maybe to some better place in overall classification. Anyway, we proved to be a strong and united team. I am sure, in next races Katusha will get some nice results."

Alexander Kristoff was the first rider of Katusha Team who did a good action with his participation in the big breakaway group. Right after the break was caught, Sergei Chernetckii did an attack in the middle of the first big climb, but was neutralized by the main bunch.

Also on the move today was Iurii Trofimov who displayed an impressive amount of strength, initiating a solo attack that put him on the front of the race before the final climb, finally caught with 19 km to go.

The peloton rode back into Nice and then began the climb with Schleck the first over the top and a determined Špilak hot on the wheel. The duo worked well together with Špilak aiming to gain time on the classification. It was only on the finishing straight that the chasing group caught them, with French national champion Arthur Vichot (FDJ.fr) taking the win ahead of Jose Joaquin Rojas of Movistar and Cyril Gautier of Europcar.

Carlos Betancur (AG2R-La Mondiale) defended his race lead to emerge the 2014 champion of Paris – Nice at 14-seconds ahead of world champion Rui Da Costa (Lampre) and 20-seconds to Vichot.

Simon Špilak was 8th in the final classification with +0.36.

In the UCI WorldTour ranking Spilak brought 20 points to Katusha Team.