Soudal Quick-Step’s Belgian took his most important result of the year so far.
Ilan Van Wilder scored his first overall classification top ten in a World Tour stage race since last year’s Tour de Romandie after an impressive ride on the explosive stage 8 of Paris-Nice, which tackled Col de la Porte, Côte de Peille, Col d’Èze and Col des Quatre Chemins, all crammed in just 120 kilometers.
The 24-year-old started the day in 12th place overall, but thanks to a consistent ride and a remarkable fighting spirit, he overcame an early crash and the hard gradients of this short but intense day and managed to take ninth on the emblematic Promenade des Anglais, a result that helped Ilan upgrade his position in the final ranking, which was won by Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike).
“At one point today I didn’t know if I could still continue, because another rider hit my front wheel and I crashed, while my chain came off. Fortunately, Max Schachmann was there and brought me back, which wasn’t an easy task, as in the front the pace they were pushing was really hard. After joining the peloton again, I tried to recover as well as possible, and when we began climbing and I got dropped, I just rode my own pace and this helped me bridge across again. At that moment I realised it was a hard stage for everyone and that I just had to keep pushing.”
“In the final part I felt quite good and I’m happy with the way I finished the race. It’s the hardest stage race I have ridden in my career, full gas from start to finish and with some horrible weather along the way. I’m grateful to the team for their support and proud of the way I fought, without ever giving up”, said Ilan after Paris-Nice, the third World Tour stage race of his career that he concluded in the top ten after least year’s UAE Tour and Tour de Romandie.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
