Not only is Vingegaard the first Danish winner, but it’s also the biggest winning margin since 1939.
Cor Vos
The final stage of Paris-Nice is nearly always one to circle on the calendar, with GC contenders and Classics specialists alike finding fun in the mountainous playground just inland from Nice.
At the culmination of the 2026 race, stage 8 was perhaps a little more controlled than in some recent editions, but thanks to Lenny Martinez, it was not quite the Visma-Lease a Bike domination that all signs pointed towards earlier in the stage – and indeed the whole race.
[race_result id=2 stage_id=90042 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
[race_result id=2 stage_id=90042 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
As it happened, Lenny Martinez was the second Frenchman to light up the Paris-Nice finale – on roads that were finally blushing with sunlight – as Valentin Paret-Peintre had made a valiant solo effort earlier in the stage. The Soudal-QuickStep rider had taken his opportunity soon after the short-lived breakaway was caught on the Col de la Porte, but though Marc Soler tried to jump across to him, Paret-Peintre was condemned to 57 lonesome kilometres as a carrot for the peloton.
Meanwhile, Jonas Vingegaard was being looked after by teammates Bruno Armirail and Victor Campenaerts, few but mighty in their support of the yellow jersey. And the latter in particular was about to earn his supper.
Paret-Peintre was finally caught with 24 km to go, just before the final classified climb of the race, the Côte de Linguador (3.3 km at 8.2%), the third of three Cat.1 ascents of the day. Campenaerts then led what was left of the peloton onto the climb at high speed.
Campenaerts lit it up from the front, digging in for Vingegaard who started the climb third wheel with fourth-overall Kévin Vauquelin wedged between them. However, after about 500 metres of climbing, the Dane slid up onto his teammate’s wheel, making ready to pounce.
There were echoes of Wout van Aert’s performance on the Hautacam at the 2022 Tour de France in Campenaerts’ effort in the first kilometre of the Linguador, stretching the reduced favourites group to breaking point.
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