Sawt Falasteen - Tejada enjoys first big win as Vingegaard keeps Paris-Nice lead

After Lenny Martinez attacked late on the final climb, Tejada, who had chased on after mechanical issues, counter-attacked over the summit.

He held off the Frenchman on the descent to the finish line in Apt at the end of a 179.3 km stage from Berbentane, south of Avignon.

"I'm very grateful to my teammates because I had a lot of problems with my bike," Tejada said at the finish.

He said Astana team manager Alexander Vinokourov, a former Paris-Nice winner, "advised me to be ready to jump over the top of the climb and on the downhill that followed and that's exactly what I did".

The 28-year-old gained only his second career win as he finished six seconds clear of another rider Frenchman Dorian Godon of Ineos at the head of a charging pack of sprinters. Tejada's only previous victory was in the Tour of Colombia two years ago.

"It's my first WorldTour win and it's taken a lot of patience and perseverance to get here."

"I even had time to give a proper victory salute."

Vingegaard, a Dane who rides for Visma-Lease a Bike, stayed 3 minutes and 22 seconds ahead of Colombian Dani Martinez of Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe.

There are two stages left and they are likely to be disrupted by the weather.

Saturday's queen stage to Auron may even, as is often the case in Paris-Nice, have to be shortened with the finish moved to another location, as snowfall is forecast in the Alpine resort.

F.AbuZaid--SF-PST