"It was important to complete the stage. It's one of the biggest races in the world. They wanted a stage. It could be done differently. We could have stopped earlier. It was slippery, and there were some crashes. It wouldn't have been a problem to stop 10 kilometers earlier.
"I'm fine. I fell back at the right moment, and I made sure I wasn't involved in the crash. I'm okay, and I hope that also goes for those who crashed. Tomorrow is a new day. Hopefully, we'll have better weather. We'll see. I just hope to keep the jersey after tomorrow, too", said Vingegard after the race.
Organizers already decided on Friday that a summit finish in Auron would be dangerous with heavy snowfall expected, so the finish was moved to Isola, at the foot of the original final climb. However, as weather conditions worsened, the original mountain stage was shortened once more, this time to a mini-stage of just 47 kilometers, which meant that there were no classified climbs left.
No fewer than twelve riders failed to take the start: Tim van Dijke, Nikias Arndt, Pascal Eenkhoorn, Max Kanter, Petr Kelemen, Timo Roosen, Marijn van den Berg, Sven Erik Bystrom, Aimé De Gendt, Frederik Frison, Anthony Turgis, and Milan Menten all climbed off their bikes before the stage began.
Joshua Tarling led the peloton into the final kilometer, as the stage was decided in a sprint between the strongest sprinters left in this year’s Paris-Nice. Godon in the end crossed the finishing line in first place, beating, among others, Cees Bol of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale and Laurence Pithie of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe.