Spain's Marc Soler has been rewarded for his long-rage attack in the final stage as he beat Britain's Simon Yates by four seconds to win the Paris-Nice.
The Movistar rider jumped away from the group of favourites with more than 50 kilometres left in the 110km mountainous ride around Nice to take third place in the eighth stage won by fellow Spaniard David de la Cruz of Team Sky.
It gave Soler a four-second bonus that helped him move past overnight leader Yates after the Mitchelton-Scott rider was dropped in the last ascent of the day.
Yates made contact with other favourites in the descent into Nice but finished sixth, 38 seconds behind De La Cruz and second placed Omar Fraile of Spain. He was 35 seconds adrift of Soler.
The 24-year-old Soler won the Tour de l'Avenir three years ago, a mini Tour de France for the under-23 riders.
"It's really a dream come true to win Paris-Nice and add my name to the winners' list next to some of the greats of cycling," Soler said. "I'm progressing each year and I'm getting used to ride at that level. I'm progressing step by step."
Another Spaniard, Gorka Izaguirre, took third place overall. He was 14 seconds off the pace despite crashing in the final descent, while his Bahrain-Merida teammate and brother Jon ended up fourth.
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