Betancur first Colombian winner at Paris-Nice cycling race

NICE, France: Carlos Betancur became the first Colombian cyclist to win the Paris-Nice race on Sunday following the eighth and final stage.
French champion Arthur Vichot won the stage, raced along the celebrated Promenade des Anglais, which saw several riders, including Portugal’s road race world champion Rui Costa, lose their chance of victory in the stage in a pile-up 300 meters from the finish.
Costa was able to remount and cycle gingerly to the finishing line of the ‘Race to the Sun’ to finish second overall.
Betancur, 24, was winning his first stage race at WorldTour level, although he finished an impressive fifth in last year’s Tour of Italy.
“I have received great support from my team-mates while I have held the overall lead,” said Betancur, who won two stages during the week.
Betancur, who rides for the French AG2R team, kept a keen eye on Costa throughout the final stage as the Portuguese rider was only 14sec behind him in the overall standings.
The only anxious moment he had vis a vis his main rival was when Costa tried to steal a march on him on the Col d’Eze, the final climb of the stage, but he and his team — the first French team to have the winner of the race since Swiss rider Tony Rominger won in 1991 — reeled him in without any great difficulty.

Imperious Contador climbs into Tirreno lead
In Milan, Spaniard Alberto Contador capped a spectacular day of racing on the fifth stage of Tirreno-Adriatico to claim his second successive stage win and take the race leader’s jersey on Sunday.
A day after winning stage four, the two-time Tour de France winner was in imperious form on the 190 km stage from Amatrice to Guardiagrele where he came over the line solo following a punishing, final climb having launched an incisive attack earlier.
Overall victory rivals Michal Kwiatkowski and Nairo Quintana were among those who ultimately failed to respond to Contador’s surge of pace on a long climb inside the final 30 km.
While Quintana limited some of the damage, Omega-Pharma’s Kwiatkowski finished a massive six minutes down, meaning Contador now leads the ‘Race of the Two Seas’ with a 2min 08sec lead on Colombian climbing specialist Quintana.
Contador’s Czech teammate at Tinkoff, Roman Kreuziger, sits third overall at 2:09.
With two stages remaining, including a race-closing 9.1 km time trial on Tuesday that should suit his overall skills, Contador has one hand on the title.
“Well, the dream was to go alone and that motivated me to ride the way I did. Needless to say, I’m extremely happy about this result and the way the whole team performed today,” said 31-year-old Contador.
But he added: “The race isn’t over until the final stage is finished so the overall is not secure yet.
“Right now, I just want to enjoy the moment.”