France's Godon wins shortened Paris-Nice stage seven
France's Dorian Godon won a shortened penultimate stage of the Paris-Nice elite cycling event, with Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard poised for overall race victory. Saturday's seventh stage was due to play out across 138. 7km - finishing with a decisive 7.
3km climb to the mountain top at Auron - but the final 7. 3km ascent was dropped because of heavy snowfall. Organisers said prior to the race that the planned summit finish was "unfeasible", and heavy rain also meant they had to cut the opening sector.
Ineos rider Godon won the sprint finish with Eritrean Biniam Girmay second and Dutchman Cees Bol third - sealing victory in just over an hour. "I never thought I'd win a mountain stage one day on Paris-Nice," Godon said. "Before the start of the season I bought a bottle of wine called Satisfied.
It's at home and I wasn't allowed to open it until I won. It is the second time in three years organisers have been forced to abandon plans for a summit finish in the so-called 'queen stage' of the race, which concludes in Nice on Sunday. Vingegaard goes into the final stage with a commanding lead of three minutes 22 seconds over Colombia's Dani Martinez in the general classification.
"I think it is very important that we race. This is one of the biggest races in the world, but it was pretty slippery towards the end," Vingegaard said. "We were, and still are, very much in favour of racing.