A threesome breakaway
In the descent, Oriol and Extebarria move away from the pack. They quickly gain a 10 second lead, which increases to 15 seconds at the entrance to la Turbie (Km 18). At the exit to la Turbie, the pack accelerates but the two leaders increase their lead to 20 seconds. Galvez (Kel) moves ahead and catches up with the breakaways. At the bottom of the descent, at La Trinité, the three leaders are 40 seconds ahead of the pack. The gap widens : at Drap, Km 28,5, they are 1 minute ahead, then 1 minute 20 seconds ahead. At the entrance to Contes, Oriol, Galvez and Extebarria are in the lead by 1 minute 50 seconds.

In the second ascension of the day, Magnien, Boonen and Gaumont are outdistanced at the summit of the Col de Chateauneuf. The breakaways Oriol, Extebarria and Galvez pass in this order, 1 minute 35 seconds ahead of Cardoso and Pineau, followed by the pack. In the descent towards Nice the breakaways remain in the lead, and pass in the sprint on the Promenade des Anglais with a lead of 3 minutes.

Oriol, Galvez and Extebarria attack the Col d'Eze. In the ascension, the pack little by little reduces the gap and at the summit the breakaways are only 1 minute 05 seconds ahead of their pursuers. In the descent, the riders in the lead are 2 minutes 30 seconds ahead at the exit to La Trinité. A lead that increases in the first moments of the ascension. At the passage at Drap (Km 95), the breakaways are still in the lead by 1 minute 40 seconds. But impelled on by the riders of the Once-Eroski team, the pack catches up and is only 1 minute 15 seconds behind and then rapidly only 25 seconds behind. At the back numerous riders are outdistanced.

The adventure draws to an end
Galvez slows down and is caught up with by the pack who pass only 15 seconds behind the leading group. And at Km 108,5, the breakaways are caught up with. Galvez is overtaken by the pack. At this moment, Para (Kel) attacks alone 1 km from the summit of the col de Chateauneuf. He is very quickly 10 seconds ahead but Bernabeu and Jeker (Mil) join him. Behind the musclemen Hamilton and Vinokourov are at the head of the pack, and at the summit of the col de Châteuneuf, Jeker passes into the lead in front of Bernabeu and Para. 12 seconds behind, Sousa Barbpsa and Hamilton pass. In the descent, the breakaways are in the lead by 20 seconds. In the sprint in Nice, at Km 133, Jeker is ahead of Bernabeu and Para. The pack follows 1 minute 15 seconds behind.

In the ascension of the col d'Eze, the three breakaways lose time but still pass 30 seconds ahead of a first group made up of Lefevre (JDL), Sanchez (Eus), Vinokourov (Tel) and Arvesen (Fak), and the rest of the first pack made up of Simoni (Sae), Gustov (Fas), Chavanel (BLB), Rebellin (Ges), Jaksche ((One), Serrano (One), Zarrabetia (One), Pereiro (Pho), Perez (Pho), Brochard (A2R), Gonzalez (Eus), Moller (Mil) and Lavarhnas (Mil).

But they are unable to make up for lost time in spite of attacks from Chavanel and Brochard. On the Promenade des Anglais, David Bernabeu wins alone ahead of Jeker. Final victory is achieved by Alexandre Vinokourov with a double win.

Three questions for Jean-Marie Leblanc

Your initial reaction to this edition of Paris-Nice?
   The race was profoundly affected by the death of Andreï Kivilev. A real emotion took hold of the pack at the announcement of his death on Wednesday morning and the organisation and the spirits of the riders were numbed. And then, when Vinokourov, almost Kivilev's brother, won the leader jersey, a silent agreement among the riders was felt. He wasn't as pressured as much as he would have been normally. This proves that there is still a great sporting spirit in this sport, which takes nothing away from the sporting performance of Vinokourov.

And from a purely sporting point of view…
    It was a very difficult race and very selective. Moreover, there were only 90 riders at the finish and the leaders were always riders who were very much on form. In spite of everything, the untimely abandon of Dario Frigo put an end to the match. And I think that we would have had a very different race if he had been there. But the results would not necessarily have changed because Vinokourov was really very strong.

And the French riders…
    There are only two French riders among the first 20, Chavanel and Lefevre. For Lefevre, this proves his regularity at the highest level. He has had a good season, and it is evident that he has found his place . As for Chavanel, he confirms the hopes placed in him. He was very convincing, in the time-trials as much as in the ascensions. He is really making great progress in all domains. On the other hand, the Française des jeux and Sandy Casar in particular, who finished in second place here last year and of whom much was expected, and the Crédit Agricole team, were completely off target and owe us a revenge.