Paris-Nice: Another day in yellow as Astana's Sanchez defends the lead

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ASTANA. KAZINFORM At Wednesday's Time Trial, Luis Leon Sanchez finished 7th at '28 seconds behind winner Wout Poels, AstanaProTeam's press service reports.

With his strong performance in this technical stage, he successfully defended his lead as he is now '15 seconds ahead of Poels and '26 seconds of Julian Alaphillipe.
- We have a great atmosphere in the team and so far everything is working really well, from the very first race we are holding a high level in the races. Several factors came together in this season, we became stronger, changed our mentality a little bit and our style of racing and now the results are coming.

There are many riders still in the race who can win, I can't name only a few. This is Paris-Nice, a big race and still, everything is open here with a few really hard stages to come. We have a strong team here, we have to stay focused and concentrated on our race and do all that's possible to get the highest result, - told Luis Leon Sanchez.

A hard and technical Time Trial for the riders today, starting in La Fouillouse and finishing in Saint-Étienne. 18.4 kilometers with a climb and a fast descent, deciding the General Classification before going into the mountain stages on Friday.

Before Luis Leon Sanchez started at the end of the day, it was Jakob Fuglsang riding to the fastest time at the first checkpoint and finishing second behind Dylan van Baarle, who was the fastest rider at that moment. Fuglsang rose 17 places in the General Classification, to a 37th place. Luis Leon Sanchez rode a good Time Trial with a strong start, but in the fast descent, he limited the risks on the wet roads. At the first checkpoint he lost 15 seconds to winner Wout Poels, but at the finish, he was still in the lead in the General Classification, as he finished '28 seconds behind the Dutchman.

Tomorrow there's a 163.5km-long stage from Salon-de-Provence to Sisteron, with one 1st category climb and a few smaller climbs, where Astana Pro Team will try to defend the yellow leader jersey of Luis Leon Sanchez.

Photo credit: Bettiniphoto

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