Roglic grabs 3rd Paris-Nice stage win to close in on victory

Primoz Roglic won his third stage of this year's Paris-Nice on Saturday, consolidating his lead in the yellow jersey with victory atop the summit finish at Valdeblore La Colmiane

The Slovenian rider chased down Switzerland's Gino Mader, the last man standing from stage seven's early breakaway, to extend his advantage to 52 seconds heading into Sunday's finale.

Mader attacked and distanced Neilson Powless less than 5km from the finish but saw his lead melt away as Roglic hit the accelerator before sprinting to a third win in four days.

Tour de France runner-up Roglic edged Mader by two seconds with Maximilian Schachmann third on the day. The German is second to Roglic overall.

"Paris-Nice is a great race and I would like to add it to my palmares," said Roglic.

"But we are not there yet. I expect the necessary attacks tomorrow and we have to stay sharp and focused to bring the victory home."

Sunday's concluding stage, which traditionally finishes on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, will end instead around 40km north in the town of Levens, to avoid a local Covid lockdown.

It will start from the Plan du Var and take the form of a quasi-loop.

VIDEO: 2021 Paris-Nice Stage 7 Highlights

2021 Paris-Nice Stage 7 Top 10

1 Primoz Roglic (Slv) Jumbo-Visma 3:09:18
2 Gino Mader (Swi) Bahrain Victorious 0:00:02
3 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:05
4 Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Team BikeExchange 0:00:08
5 Alexander Vlasov (Rus) Astana-Premier Tech 0:00:10
6 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Team DSM
7 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis 0:00:15
8 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Astana-Premier Tech
9 Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:22
10 Jai Hindley (Aus) Team DSM 0:00:27

2021 Paris-Nice GC after stage 7

1 Primoz Roglic (Slv) Jumbo-Visma 26:32:01
2 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:52
3 Alexander Vlasov (Rus) Astana-Premier Tech 0:01:11
4 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Astana-Premier Tech 0:01:15
5 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Team DSM 0:01:34
6 Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Team BikeExchange
7 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis 0:02:06
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma 0:02:07
9 Jack Haig (Aus) Bahrain Victorious 0:02:10
10 Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Movistar 0:02:21