Contador triumphs in Paris-Nice

Frenchman Amael Moinard of Cofidis won the 119km final stage while Contador's fellow Spaniard Alejandro Valverde was second overall, with outgoing champion Luis Leon Sanchez third.

On the day, Moinard saw off another Frenchman, Thomas Voeckler, with the pair having embarked on a long escape for the line.

Valverde headed the peloton as he came in third for the stage ahead of Irishman Nicolas Roche, son of former Tour de France champion Stephen and Estonian champion Rein Taaramae.

Contador held on for his win despite the best efforts of Valverde and Sanchez to eat into his lead on the tough Eze climb, a 4.2km ascent at an average gradient of 6.8 per cent.

Contador was on his own as the peloton reached the foot of the climb after his team mates failed to follow the pace of the Caisse d'Epargne and Katusha teams.

Spaniard Joaquin Rodriguez, who started the day seventh overall 36 seconds behind, attacked in the climb, prompting Contador to react.

He swiftly caught Rodriguez with Valverde and Sanchez in his wheel.

Contador then launched a preventative attack to drop Sanchez but the Caisse d'Epargne rider managed to come back with Estonian champion Rein Taaramae.

Sandwiched in between Rodriguez, Sanchez and Valverde, Contador kept his composure to hold them off as a group of some 15 riders joined the chase.

"It is very difficult to win Paris-Nice, especially when you're the man to beat," Contador said.

"So it's like a liberation. You have to keep cool. As the years go by, I become more mature."

Contador's group managed to stay within 20sec of Moinard and Voeckler as the riders hit the summit of the climb some 16km out from the finish.

"I am so happy. I have the polka dot jersey and I win a stage. We had some head wind so I let Thomas launch the sprint so I could surprise him," said Moinard.

The Cofidis rider secured the polka dot jersey for the best climber and Slovakian prodigy Peter Sagan, who clinched two stages in the race, took the green jersey for the points classifications.

Sagan's Liquigas team mate Roman Kreuziger of the Czech Republic, bagged the white jersey for the best young rider.

Stage 7: 119km, Nice.

1 Amaël Moinard (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne 2:52:09, 2 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom, 3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:03, 4 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale, 5 Reine Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne, 6 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha, 7 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank, 8 Christopher Horner (USA) Team RadioShack, 9 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Team RadioShack, 10 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana.

General classification:

1 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana 28:35:35, 2 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:11, 3 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:25, 4 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas - Doimo 0:00:26, 5 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:00:30, 6 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:35, 7 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:00:37, 8 Reine Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne 0:01:07, 9 Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Omega Pharma - Lotto 0:01:16, 10 Jérôme Coppel (Fra) Saur - Sojasun 0:01:17.