Alberto Contador put in a game effort Sunday in the final stage of Paris-Nice, but it wasn’t enough to affect the overall race result.

Contador finished second in the stage behind former teammate Antonio Colom of Katusha, and he took back but 17 seconds from race winner Luis Leon Sanchez of Caisse d’Epargne. 

With Sanchez and the yellow jersey in-tow, Caisse d’Epargne never let Contador get more than 2 minutes ahead as he made a gallant effort to attack on the big climbs of the day and get out on a breakaway in the hopes of getting back the yellow jersey he lost by bonking in Stage 7.

In the end, Contador’s effort was for naught as Colom and Frank Schleck escaped from the chasing group near the finishing line, then Colom outsprinted Contador and Schleck to the finish.

Sanchez ended up winning by 1:00 over SChleck, 1;09 over Quick Step’s Sylvain Chavanel and 1:24 over Contador. Colom moved up a spot to fifth, 1:47 behind Sanchez and 12 seconds ahead of Saxo Bank’s Big Jens Voight in sixth.

I’m impressed with Colom, who did yeoman’s work for Levi Leipheimer last year at the Tour de Georgia and Contador at the Giro d’Italia. His move to Katusha might be the classic example of a super-domestique moving into a leaders role with a new team. This kid can climb, and he’s tough. He also has two head-to-head stage wins over Contador this season.

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