Carlos Betancur of AG2R won his second successive stage in the 72nd Paris-Nice race, when he won the sixth stage in Fayence.
Geraint Thomas of Team Sky continued to lead the race to the sun going into the longest stage of the race.
This 221.5km stage from Saint-Saturnin-lès-Avignon to Fayence started with Omega Pharma Quick Step's Nicky Terpstra trying to get away, only to be quickly brought back after fourteen kilometres.
A new group of Thor Hushovd, Sylvain Chavanel, Simon Yates, Gert Steegmans, Engoulvent, Koch, Timmer & Anthony Delaplace got away and after 31kms had a thirty second lead.
On the first climb of the day, Chavanel attacked and on his own and took the points for the first climb and then took the first sprint of the day.
After 64kms, Chavanel was brought back to the fold and Steve Cummings of BMC got himself into a ten man group along with Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEdge), Mattia Cattaneo (Lampre), Pim Ligthart (Lott-Belisol), Giovanni Bernaudeau (Europcar), Gregory Rast (Trek Factory Racing), Aleksandr Kuchynski (Katusha), Adrien Petit (Cofidis), Alessandro De Marchi (Cannondale) and Florian Vachon (Bretagne - Seche Environnement).
Gasparotto tried to bridge but had to drop back into the peloton who were now 3.15 down after 105kms.
With Keukeleire being only 25 seconds down on Geraint Thomas, the lead was too dangerous to leave away and Team Sky worked to bring it down.
They succeeded and at the foot of the Côte des Tuilières, the gap was down to a minute with 55kms remaining. Sylvain Chavanel and Thomas Voeckler went off the front of the peloton.
Pim Ligthart took the seven points on the climb with Steve Cummings taking two points for fourth.
Chavanel and Voeckler caught the escapers, who had a 1.15 lead with fifty kilometres remaining.
King of The Mountains points were what Chavanel was after and he powered away to take the third climb of the day ahead of Ligthart and Voeckler.
Ligthart, Voeckler, Chavanel and De Marchi decided to go their own way and let the rest of the escapers being gathered up by the peloton. taking a thirty second lead.
De Marchi took the second sprint before Voeckler was dropped with 25kms to go.
Chavanel went off on another lone attack but was caught and passed by Alexis Vuillermoz of AG2R and Jose Serpa of Lampre as they started on the first category climb of the Col de Bourigaille.
Vuillermoz attacked with Stefan Denifl of IAM Cycling and they were joined by Franck Schleck with Yury Trofimov and Przemyslaw Niemiec trying to bridge.
Eduardo Sepulveda of Bretagne Seche Enviroment joined them to form a six man group for the final eighteen kilometres after an attack from Stybar had been brought back. Three kilometres later and this latest bunch of escapers was caught.
Dries Devenyns of Giant-Shimano and Damiano Caruso were the next to attack, taking a twelve second lead into the final ten kilometres.
The finish in Fayence saw a category two climb and Vincenzo Nibali chased down the two escapers, followed by Spillak.
With three kilometres to this uphill finish, the Nibali et al were caught.
Wilko Kelderman suffered a flat tyre as Vuillermoz attacked at the bottom of the climb, inside the final kilometre.
In to a hair pin bend, with less than 500m to go and Vuillermoz crashed and up came Carlos Betancur, passing Rui Costa to take the win with Stybar third and Geraint Thomas in fourth.
The other top ten places were Vichot, Gautier, Fuglsang, Gallopin, . Denifl and Izaguirre.
With the bonuses Carlos Betancur took for the win on the last two stages, the AG2R rider now leads the race by eight seconds from Geraint Thomas and 18 seconds over Rui Costa, 22 seconds over . Zdenek Stybar and 24 seconds over Jose Joaquin Rojas.