Germany's Maximilian Schachmann of the Bora-hansgrohe team won the Paris-Nice cycling race on Saturday holding on in a frantic climb to a summit finish where he fell to the ground exhausted. The race was one of the rare events to escape postponement until the final stage to south coast city Nice set for Sunday was trimmed from the itinerary over health fears. World champion Mads Pedersen of Denmark pulled out before the start on Saturday after his country asked its nationals to come home amid the coronavirus outbreak. "As a team we always said that we would respect the authorities in this emergency," the Trek-Segafredo rider said in a team statement. "My country has asked that all Danish nationals go home as soon as possible, so in agreement with the Team I’m not taking the start this morning to respect this decision." Denmark announced on Friday it would shut its borders to most foreign visitors for a month from Saturday, in a move unprecedented in peacetime as part of efforts to halt the spread of coronavirus. Schachmann won the opening stage in a cross-wind on the plains outside Paris last Sunday, he tightened his grip in the time-trial on Wednesday before clinging on during a 16km climb and summit finish Saturday. "The last three kilometres were hell, but now I'm in heaven. This is the greatest victory of my life," said Schachmann. "This is just the beginning, my dream has always been to become a GC rider," he said in reference to the elite group who contest overall victory in cycling tours. He won Paris-Nice 2020 by 18 seconds from Belgium's Tiesj Benoot with Colombian rookie Sergio Higuita in third at 59 seconds back. Pre-race favourite Colombian climber Nairo Quintana fell on day one but took this seventh and final stage of the 'Race to the Sun' after a lightning attack earned him a solo win for his new team Arkea-Samsic.
