Direct Energie’s Jonathan Hivert won the 210km third stage of the Paris-Nice, which finished in Châtel-Guyon today.
The Frenchman completed the race in 5:22:49, beating Astana Pro’s Luis León Sanchez (Spain) and Delko Marseille Provence KTM’s Remy Di Gregorio (France) into second and third respectively.
Direct Energie’s Jonathan Hivert pictured on the podium following his victory on stage three of the Paris-Nice today. Photo: @ParisNice
Hivert managed to sprint away from Sanchez and Di Gregorio in the final few metres after the trio had made a decisive split over the last climb with approximately 20km left.
“After the last climb, when I knew we would be a trio, I was sure I would be involved in the mix at the end,” Hivert said after the race. “I could never tell what would have happened though.
“I knew that we would have to play cat and mouse and when we came to the finish, that was when I was able to strike.”
Hivert said he was unhappy with stage one’s finish and that this made up for it.
“I had an injury and then a surgery and then I came back. Now it’s all going really well; I’m really happy.”
Following the stage, Sanchez takes the overall race lead ahead of stage one winner Groupama-FDJ’s Arnaud Demare (France) and Bahrain-Merida’s Gorka Izagirre (Spain).
View more results below.
Stage three
1. Jonathan Hivert (Direct Energie, France) 5:22:49
2. Luis León Sanchez (Astana Pro, Spain)
3. Remy Di Gregorio (Delko Marseille Provence KTM, France)
4. Arnaud Demare (Groupama FDJ, France) 5:23:27
5. Mike Teunissen (Team Sunweb, Netherlands)
6. André Greipel (Lotto Soudal, Germany)
7. Magnus Cort (Astana Pro, Denmark)
8. Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott, Italy)
9. Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors, France)
10. Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe, Austria)
General classification
1. Luis León Sanchez (Astana Pro, Spain) 13:21:55
2. Arnaud Demare (Groupama FDJ, France) +29″
3. Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida, Spain) +36″
4. Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors, France) +39″
5. Mike Teunissen (Team Sunweb, Netherlands) +42″
6. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal, Belgium)
7. Roman Kreuziger (Mitchelton-Scott, Czech Republic)
8. Heinrich Haussler (Bahrain-Merida, Australia) +44″
9. Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe, Austria)
10. Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida, Spain)
