Arthur Vichot (FDJ) continued to prove that he has taken a massive step up when he finished 5th in today's queen stage of Paris-Nice to move himself into 7th on GC. The Frenchman is hopeful that me may move further up the standings over the weekend as he expects surprises to occur in the final two hilly stages.

With a course for puncheurs, Arthur Vichot could not have wished a better route for this year's Paris-Nice and the Frenchman made the French stage race one of his big early-season targets. With another excellent showing in today's queen stage, he confirmed his potential in this kind of terrain.

As a past winner of the Tour du Haut-Var, Vichot knew today's terrain well and he knew how to handle the steep Mur de Fayence that ended the stage. He fought alongside the likes of Carlos Betancur and world champion Rui Costa to prove how far he has come in his development as a bike rider and ended the stage in 5th, just 3 seconds behind stage winner Betancur.

He now sits in 7th on GC and with more of the same terrain coming up, he expects things to change again over the weekend.

"The Mur de Fayence is very hard," he said. "You need to use a geat of 39x28. We have done this climb thousand times, in racing, at training camps, it is almost like home. As expected it was decided on the final climb. It is a bit like Mur de Huy for the puncheurs and from the bottom you can't calculate anything but just give it your all. That's what I did.

"The guys protected me all day and put me in a good position. I did not want to disappoint them. I was fifth but didn't win. We can say that in this kind of finish the strongest guy wind but I am glad I did well. There a re two beautiful days coming up where you have to stay focused and I whink we could see a nice surprise on Sunday

"Tomorrow, there is a nice finish for punchers in Biot. I will be present to keep my place overall and defend it to the last day in Nice. I am confident. "

You can read our preview of stage 7 here and follow our live coverage at 14.25 CET on CyclingQuotes.com/live.