Paris-Nice Stage 3: Valverde survives late Gerrans charge to win stage, Wiggins keeps overall lead

Movistar's Alejandro Valverde held on by less than half a wheel's width to survive a late charge from Simon Gerrans of GreenEdge, the man who had narrowly beaten him to the Santos Tour Down Under title in January, to win Stage 3 of Paris-Nice on the Catgeory 3 climb to Le Lac de Vassivière this afternoon.Gianni Meersman of Lotto-Belisol finished third, while Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins rolled over safely in the group in 20th place and on the same time to retain the race leader's yellow jersey.

Valverde had started the morning 11th overall, his presence in the 21-man break that contested yesterday's finale allowing him to jump up the general classification following a fairly lacklustre performance in Sunday's opening time trial that had left him in 41st position, a full half-minute down on the leaders.

The 10-second bonus he gets for winning today's stage takes him to sixth overall and just 20 seconds down on Wiggins, with Thursday's tough finish in Mende looking tailor-made for the Spaniard.

It's the 31-year-old former world number one's third victory since returning to the sport at the start of January following a two-year ban imposed as a result of his links to Operacion Puerto. The first of those, in his debut race for Movistar, the Tour Down Under, also came at the expense of Gerrans on an uphill finish on Old Willunga Hill.

Today's scenario was different to that two-man battle back in January, however, with Valverde, whose Movistar team had moved to the front as the main bunch headed under the flamme rouge, looking set to win with relative ease after countering the attack of compatriot Luis Leon Sanchez of Rabobank, a former winner of Paris-Nice.

But Gerrans, whose Tour Down Under overall victory had come just a fortnight after he began his season with the new Australian outfit by taking the national road championship, burst from the pack with a late surge that very nearly had Valverde beaten.

Earlier in the 194km stage from Vierzon, which had begun without RadioShack-Nissan's Andy Schleck, who had withdrawn citing a stomach upset, and GreenEdge's Aidis Kruopis, a three man breakaway had managed to escape, comprising Michael Morkov of Saxo Bank, Saur-Sojasun's Jimmy Engoulvent and Roy Curvers of Project 1t4i.

At one point, that trio had a lead of nearly five minutes but as the race headed into the final 30 kilometres, the gap was tumbling with Team Sky driving the peloton. Movistar, working for Valverde who had suffered a puncture, took up the reins and the final escapee, Egoulvent, was swept up with 7 kilometres left shortly after taking the day's intermediate sprint. Team Sky's Geraint Thomas, looking to prevent any of Wiggis' rivals from getting bonus seconds, was the second man over.

With a little over 3 kilometres left on the final Category 3 climb to the finish, Vaconsoleil-DCM's Sergey Lagutin launched a solo bid for glory, but Team Sky kept a watchful eye on the Uzbek national champion, as well as on Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Levi Leipheimer and Sylvain Chavanel, two of the biggest threats to Wiggins in the overall.

Movistar then made their move to position Valverde perfectly for him to repeat the success of Spanish legend Miguel Indurain, who won his final Tour de France stage here in 1995.

After his victory, Valverde said: "I really must thank my team-mates who did a phenomenal job all day and in the finale. I’m glad to have won this because it was a great fight. Of course I think about final victory but for now, I’m just glad I won this. I was in the front group yesterday and my sensations since the start have been great. We’ll see."

Wiggins, meanwhile, reflected on the difficulty Team Sky has in defending what is a narrow lead, particularly in a race that, unlike the Tour de France, awards bonus seconds at stage finishes. “It was cold out there, a lot of guys were struggling. It’s another day down. I’m just looking to stay safe and keep the guys like Levi around me. Alejandro won today and he is getting closer too.

"The next couple of days we’re going to try and control as best as possible. But six seconds is hard to defend and there is a strong possibility that we can lose the jersey with a bonification here or there. If we can stay in touch until the Col d’Eze [the individual time trial that brongs the race to a close on Suday], we can play it cool.”

Paris-Nice Stage 3 result  

1  VALVERDE Alejandro   MOVISTAR TEAM              4h 36' 19"
2  GERRANS Simon        GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM  All at same time
3  MEERSMAN Gianni      LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM
4  SANCHEZ Luis-Leon    RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM
5  FLORENCIO Xavier     KATUSHA TEAM
6  CAPECCHI Eros        LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE
7  MONFORT Maxime       RADIOSHACK-NISSAN
8  HIVERT Jonathan      SAUR-SOJASUN
9  GAVAZZI Francesco    ASTANA PRO TEAM
10 WESTRA Lieuwe        VACANSOLEIL-DCM
11 GALLAND Jeremie      SAUR-SOJASUN
12 SIMON Julien         SAUR-SOJASUN
13 LEVARLET Guillaume   SAUR-SOJASUN
14 VAN GARDEREN Tejay   BMC RACING TEAM
15 KADRI Blel           AG2R LA MONDIALE
16 LEIPHEIMER Levi      OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP
17 VORGANOV Eduard      KATUSHA TEAM
18 CUNEGO Damiano       LAMPRE - ISD
19 URAN Rigoberto       SKY PROCYCLING
20 WIGGINS Bradley      SKY PROCYCLING

Paris-Nice overall standings after Stage 3  

1  WIGGINS Bradley      SKY PROCYCLING             9h 09' 51"
2  LEIPHEIMER Levi      OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP     + 00' 06"
3  VAN GARDEREN Tejay   BMC RACING TEAM             + 00' 11"
4  CHAVANEL Sylvain     OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP     + 00' 14"
5  MONFORT Maxime       RADIOSHACK-NISSAN           + 00' 18"
6  VALVERDE Alejandro   MOVISTAR TEAM               + 00' 20"
7  WESTRA Lieuwe        VACANSOLEIL-DCM             + 00' 22"
8  ROJAS Jose Joaquin   MOVISTAR TEAM               + 00' 29"
9  SPILAK Simon         KATUSHA TEAM                + 00' 33"
10 KISERLOVSKI Robert   ASTANA PRO TEAM             + 00' 36"