Henao shades Contador by two seconds in Paris-Nice

Colombia's Sergio Henao celebrates his overall leader yellow jersey on the podium at the end of the 115,5 km eighth and last stage of the 75th edition of the Paris-Nice cycling race, in and around Nice, on Sunday. (AFP

NICE, France: Colombia’s Sergio Henao lifted his troubled Sky team’s spirits with a dramatic two-second success over Alberto Contador in the Paris-Nice on Sunday.
Henao set up the win when grabbing a half-minute lead in the ‘Race to the Sun’ with fourth in Saturday’s penultimate stage.
But the 29-year-old only scraped home in the face of a determined challenge from Contador.
The Spaniard, placed third at 31 seconds at the start of the day, took second in the closing eighth stage behind his fellow countryman David de la Cruz.
Stage success for de la Cruz (Quick Step) denied Contador the bonus points which would have seen him and not Henao take overall victory.
For Contador it was a cruel near miss coming after he had been edged out by just four seconds by Geraint Thomas 12 months ago.
Ireland’s Dan Martin completed the final podium, half-a-minute behind Henao who became the second Colombian to win the race after Carlos Betancur in 2014.
Team Sky have won five of the past six editions courtesy of Bradley Wiggins (2012), Richie Porte (2013-2015), Thomas (2016) and Henao.
The British team have been hit by doping and sexism rows in recent weeks, their reputation taking a battering as a result.
Henao had said he hoped to see out the win for beleaguered team chief Dave Brailsford.