Astana's Rémy Di Gregorio took the seventh stage of the Paris-Nice this afternoon.
In rain, a number of riders including Ireland's Nicholas Roche, Greg Henderson and Frank Schleck abandoned on the 215km stage from Brignoles to Sophia Antipolis via Biot.
Karsten Kroon (BMC) and Eric Barthou (BMC) got away with 80km to go and Kroon went solo before the peleton which included yellow jersey's Tony Martin started to bring him back.
The wet weather saw a number of crashes and Vacansoleil's Lieuwe Westra and the green jersey wearer Heinrich Haussler of the Garmin-Cervélo team.
Marseille's Di Gregorio went with just over 10km to go and was able to stay out until the finish, some five seconds ahead of Samuel Sanchez and Rigoberto Uran just before Xavier Tondo fell off and had to walk his bike over the line.
Tony Martin came in with the Tondo group, seven seconds back and keeps his yellow jersey for tomorrow's final stage.
Bradley Wiggins finished eighth with Jeremy Hunt 104th, Daniel Lloyd 116th, Geraint Thomas 118th out of 140 finishers.
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Lampre's Michele Scarponi got his first win of the season when he took the fourth stage of the Tirreno-Adriactico.
This was a 240km long stage from Narni to Chieti and saw Mickael Cherel (AG2R La Mondiale), Sebastian Lang (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Gorazd Stangelj (Astana) go fifteen minutes clear before they were eventually caught by the peleton with 10km to go.
With 1.6km to go, Scarponi made his move on the climb and finished ahead of team mate Damiano Cunego and BMC's Cadel Evans (pictured below).
Steve Cummings finished 24th, Roger Hammond was 106th and Mark Cavendish was 142nd. Ian Stannard did not finish.
Rob Gesink is the leader on the road ahead by ten seconds of Cadel Evans.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM