Sylvain Chavanel surprised most by beating a host of sprinters to take an impressive victory in Nice on today's 6th stage of Paris-Nice. The Frenchman was happy to win one of the iconic stages of the cycling season, but admitted that he had not started the sprint with victory on his mind.

With Heinrich Haussler (IAM), Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Borut Bozic (Astana) and a number of other bunch sprint specialists all in contention, few expected Sylvain Chavanel to be triumphant as a reduced, 64-man peloton roared towards the finish line in Nice this afternoon. His surprise victory was testament to the difficulty of a hard day in the hills around Nice where a hard tempo by Team Sky all day had worn out the sprinters' legs - opening up the door for Chavanel.

The Frenchman would normally not even consider to go up against such a bunch of fast men. He had, however, started the day just 11 points shy of the green jersey worn by previous race leader Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp), and so he fancied the chance to go for some points to close the gap. In the end he took over the lead in the competition, but got much more than expected.

"Today I decided to do the sprint because I was looking for some points for the green jersey," Chavanel explained. "There was a head wind in the final, so I asked Kevin De Weert to stay near me. He did a great job, and he left me in the perfect position on the wheel of (Philippe, ed.) Gilbert and (Samuel, ed.) Dumoulin."

A repeat performance

The stage into Nice is one of the most iconic on the race calendar, and especially for a Frenchman it carries a certain importance. As a former winner on the Promenade d'Anglais, Chavanel was aware of the significance.

"I am super happy," Chavanel told. "It's the second time I won here in Nice after my victory in 2008. It's always a great emotion to raise the arms here."

After a difficult day on Montagne de Lure Chavanel had slipped to 6th on GC going into the stage. With 10 bonus seconds for his victory and 1 further second picked up in the final intermediate sprint he gained enough time to move into 3rd ahead of Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) and Tejay Van Garderen (BMC).

Chavanel is a strong time triallist, but has always struggled in uphill tests. As the top 10 on GC is littered with other specialists against the clock who are also renowned climbers, the French time trial champion knows that it will difficult to keep his podium place in tomorrow's time trial up Col d'Eze.

"With the bonification I took, I'm now 3rd," Chavanel said. "Tomorrow will be difficult for me, but I will try to do my best to stay in the top 10."

Fantastic day for Omega Pharma-Quick Step

The day turned out to be incredible for Chavanel's Belgian team. Not only did they win in Nice, young Polish time trial specialist surprised all the GC contenders by taking over the leader's jersey on the queen stage in Tirreno-Adriatico.

Chavanel was keen to stress the day's significance for the team.

"Today is a special day for the team," Chavanel explained. "Kwiatkowski is the new leader at Tirreno, and it is great news. I'm happy for him and the team, and I hope he can keep the jersey."

Chavanel and Kwiatkowski will defend their GC positions tomorrow in the final stage of Paris-Nice and a hard stage with an uphill finish into Chieti in Tirreno-Adriatico, respectively.