Nairo Quintana of Team Arkea-Samsic won the final stage of Paris-Nice ©ASO - Fabien Boukla

Germany's Maximilian Schachmann survived an attack on the final climb by Belgium's Tiesj Benoot to clinch victory on the final stage of Paris-Nice.

The Bora-Hansgrohe rider became the first German since 2011 to win the Race to the Sun and the first since compatriot Jorg Jackshe in 2004 to lead the race for its entirety, having taken the yellow jersey after day one in Plaisir.

Schachmann started the day with a 36 second advantage over Benoot, after the Belgian won yesterday's sixth stage.

Today's stage, which became the last when organisers cancelled the final day of action on Sunday because of the coronavirus outbreak, was 166.5km from Nice to Valdebore la Colmaine, finishing atop the climb of La Colmaine.

A six man breakaway took the lead 15km into the stage, however by the time the final climb started this was reduced to four.

Inside the final 10km the breakaway group fractured and was soon replaced at the head of the field by the remains of a 13 man peloton featuring both the top two in the overall standings - Schachmann and Benoot.

The stage lead changed hands on multiple occasions on the final climb, with the crucial break eventually being made by Colombia's Nairo Quintana from Team Arkea-Samsic who crossed the line first to win the final stage in four hours, 27 minutes and one second.

Behind him Schachmann's rivals took turns to try and overhaul the German, with the last effort coming from Team Sunweb rider Benoot inside the final kilometre however he could not close the gap sufficiently, although Benoot's efforts were enough to give him second place on the stage, 46 seconds behind Quintana.

Third place on the stage went to French rider Thibaut Pinot from Groupama FDJ, 56 seconds behind the stage winner.

In the overall standings, victory went to Schachmann in a time of 27:14:23, 18 seconds ahead of second placed Benoot and 59 seconds clear of third placed rider overall, Sergio Higuita Garcia of EF Pro Cycling.

The green jersey, awarded to the winner of the points classification, went to Benoot, Nicholas Edet of Cofidis took the polka dot jersey for winning the King of the Mountains competition and Higuita claimed the white jersey after triumphing in the best young rider competition.