German Maximilian Schachmann withstood a strong challenge from Tiesj Benoot to win the truncated Paris-Nice race on Saturday.
Sunday's final stage was cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak, meaning the race finished with a summit finish at Valdeblore La Colmiane.
Bora-Hansgrohe's Schachmann had led from the start of the race but he came close to losing it at the last as Benoot, who began the day just 36 seconds adrift, set off in pursuit of Nairo Quintana.
🎬 🇨🇴@NairoQuinCo winner in Valdeblore La Colmiane and 🇩🇪@MaxSchachmann claiming the win in the general classification. Here are the stage 7 highlights. #ParisNice pic.twitter.com/yJoob1tIW1 — Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) March 14, 2020
But Schachmann was able to limit his losses to 12 seconds on the road and six bonus seconds to win by 18 seconds overall, with Quintana taking the stage.
Sergio Higuita finished third, 59 seconds behind Schachmann, with Vicenzo Nibali in fourth.
Schachmann said on paris-nice.fr: "It was very, very hard. The last three kilometres were a walk through hell, through pain. Now it's like being in heaven and it erases all the pain in my legs.
"It's not my first success but the biggest so far and the most important because a whole lot of people doubted that I could be a GC (general classification) rider. Now I won the most prestigious one-week race."
A number of teams pulled out of the race before the start, while Bahrain-McLaren did not start on Friday.
Danish world champion Mads Pedersen was a non-starter on Saturday morning after Denmark asked citizens to return home, and the Israel Start-Up Nation team pulled out their three remaining riders.
