Spain's Contador Triumphs in Nice

Spaniard Alberto Contador won the Paris-Nice race after Sunday's seventh and final 129-km stage.

The 24-year-old Discovery Channel rider, who had won Thursday's fourth stage, broke away towards the end of the final stage around Nice.

Starting six seconds behind Italian Davide Rebellin, Contador launched a swashbuckling attack on the last climb to finish on his own.

Rebellin finished 22 seconds and the veteran Italian had to be content with his third Paris-Nice podium following his third place in 2003 and second a year later. Spaniard Luis Sanchez was third overall.

Contador, peerless in the big climbs all week, is only the second Spaniard to win the Paris-Nice. Five-times Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain was successful in 1989 and 1990.

On Sunday Contador's surge at the foot of the first category Col d'Eze was irresistible.

He reached the summit with a 44-second advantage over Rebellin and, despite losing some time on the descent, managed to keep his experienced rival at bay.

Contador was quick to praise his Discovery Channel team, who won three stages and were by far the best outfit in the race.

"I'm very satisfied with the team's work. This morning we were really impatient for the stage to start, to show what we were capable of doing. And we had great fun all day."

Contador said he was not sure he was going to win until the final kilometre.

"Two kilometres from the finish, I had doubts about Rebellin's chances to make it back. But as soon as I reached the red flame indicating the last kilometre, I knew I had won. You cannot imagine how happy I am," he said.

"This is the greatest win in my career so far. I had won other stage races and other races, but the stature, the history and the profile of this Paris-Nice make it especially great," said the Real Madrid fan, who had notably won the Tour of the Basque Country in the past.

His greatest victory, though, was a personal one when in 2002 he recovered from a near-fatal stroke in the Tour of Asturias which left him in a coma for three weeks.

"I'm a survivor," he said, adding that he owed his life to the race doctor who provided care at the scene.

Five years on, Contador is riding happily with the Discovery Channel who hired him after his Liberty Seguros team folded amidst a doping scandal last year.