Israel Start-Up Nation finished off this year’s Paris-Nice with an impressive performance by Krists Neilands who attacked several times on the difficult final stage of the race.

With a short stage of just 92.7 km, it was clear from the beginning that today’s stage would be a fast and explosive one. After numerous attacks at the start of the day, a strong break finally managed to get gap on the peloton with about half of the stage left to go. Neilands was in the group and he looked to be on a very good day.

However, as the leading rider crashed on a descent, the pace in the peloton increased significantly and the with 10 km to go, it all came back together once again. Neilands was not finished attacking though. Our strong Latvian put in a series of powerful attacks in the final five kilometers. Unfortunately, at the end, the strong group of overall favorites managed to reel back in Neilands and sprint for the victory. Magnus Cort (EF Education – Nippo) took the win, while Neilands finished in 22nd place. Maximilian Schachmann (BORA – Hansgrohe) won the race overall.

Krists Neilands: “Today, we had a short but really hard race. It was full gas since right from the start. With 5 km to go, I saw a moment and I attacked. Two guys followed me and we got a nice gap. I was sure that we would make it, but then one of the guys didn’t want to work, which cost us everything. I went all or nothing in this move. This time it didn’t work out but I know that my day is coming.”