Cycling: Hills and spills as Montoya takes over

The Paris-Nice race headed into the hills for its seventh stage yesterday and the established order was thrown into disarray, leaving Spain's Jesus Montoya to lead into the final stage today. The overnight leader, Pascal Richard of France, could not stand the pace, and Switzerland's Alex Zulle and Georg Totschnig of Austria, second and third at the start of the stage in Toulon, crashed in a tangle of bikes early in the 199km ride. France's Charlie Mottet, who escaped 22km from the finish, resisted Montoya's challenge on the final climb to win the stage. The Spaniard leads by only six seconds over the Swiss Tony Rominger.