NICE, France: Up-and-coming American rider Matteo Jorgenson won cycling's Paris-Nice on Sunday as the eight day event culminated on the Riviera seafront along the iconic Promenade des Anglais.
Jorgenson started the final day of racing around the mountainous Nice backcountry in second behind fellow American Brandon McNulty.
McNulty ran out of steam however when Belgian Remco Evenepoel and Jorgenson broke away in the cold and rain on a mountainside he could not follow.
The 24-year-old Californian, who lives in Nice, allowed Evenepoel to take the stage win, celebrating the overall title as he crossed the line just behind him.
Tall, pale and softly-spoken Jorgenson made a graceful victor.
"I could barely sleep last night, to be honest with you, I was so nervous and I felt for the first time in my life pressure," he said.
"To have it come together like that and to ride in with such a champion like Remco, it was just a really special moment."
Jorgenson joined World Tour giant Visma this season and his teammates Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert are considered by many the best Grand Tour rider and best one-day rider in the road racing scene.
Paris-Nice is his first major outing in Visma colours, a team that won all three Grand Tours last season.
Two other Americans in Bobby Julich (2005) and Floyd Landis (2006) have previously won Paris-Nice known as the 'Race to the Sun'.
Jorgenson took the title by 30 seconds from Evenepoel, due in part to a tactical error from the Belgian on stage five when he under-estimated the American allowing his attack to go undefended and losing around one minute to him that day.
"Matteo is the deserved winner of this race," Evenepoel said afterwards.
"I was the only one who could keep up with him so I'm happy with the result too."
Saturday's stage winner, the Russian Bora rider Alexandr Valsov, was third on the day at 50sec while Dane Mattias Skjelmose and McNulty rounded out the top five at 1min 39sec.
In the final overall standings Jorgenson beat Evenepoel by 30sec, McNulty was third at 1min 47sec, Skjelmose fourth at 2min 22sec and Vlasov fifth at 2min 57sec.
Former Giro and Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic of Slovenia on his first outing in Bora colours had a race to forget ending in 10th at 5min 53sec.
On the comeback trail from life threatening injuries former Tour de France and Giro champion Egan Bernal showed glimpses of a return to form and ended in seventh place at 5min 33sec. — AFP