Bradley Wiggins beat Lieuwe Westra by two seconds in the decisive mountain time trial to win the Paris-Nice race for the first time on Sunday.

Wiggins was leading the Dutchman by six seconds overnight and held firm in the 9.6km uphill dash from Nice to Col d’Eze to become the first Briton to win the race since Tom Simpson in 1967.

Wiggins beat Westra by eight seconds overall.

Alejandro Valverde had 18 seconds to make up on Wiggins, and that proved too much as he slipped 1:10 behind overall, but the Spaniard did enough to finish third.

The 31-year-old Wiggins is expected to be among the contenders to win the Tour de France later this year.