The first important stage race of the year (and its random weather conditions) shall start on Sunday the 8th in France, one day before Tirreno-Adriatico.
This year, the course completely avoids the Massif Central, but pays a brief visit into Morvan.
Despite the avoidance of the Massif Central, looking at profiles, there seems to be only 1 stage guaranteed for pure sprinters (the 2nd). The first one may smile upon sprinters-punchers, but even the stage going down the Rhône valley ends with climbs for punchers or punchers-climbers.
We may keep an eye on (among others):
- Vingegaard🇩🇰 from Visma, for his first race since his withdrawal from the European Championship last year;
Almeida🇵🇹 from UAE, a little bit sluggish so far;- Ayuso🇪🇸
& Skjelmose🇩🇰from Lidl-Trek; - Onley🇬🇧 & Vauquelin🇫🇷 from Ineos;
- Gaudu🇫🇷 & Costiou🇫🇷 from FDJ, if you are French and masochist, or if they raise the level they showed lately;
- L. Martinez🇫🇷 from Barhein.
Stages profiles
stage 1 (Sunday the 8th): 
stage 2: 
stage 3 (Team Time Trial): 
stage 4: 
stage 5: 
stage 6: 
stage 7: 
stage 8 (Sunday the 15th): 
Stage 8
Standings before this last stage:
General classification:
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma
- D.F. Martinez 🇨🇴 Bora – +3′22″
- G. Steinhauser 🇩🇪 EF – +5′50″
- K. Vauquelin 🇫🇷 Ineos – +6′09″
- L. Martinez 🇫🇷 Bahrain – +7′37″
- M. Soler 🇪🇸 UAE – +8′15″
- I. Izagirre 🇪🇸 Cofidis – +9′02″
Points:
- D. Godon 🇫🇷 Ineos – 55 pts
- L. Lamperti 🇺🇸 EF – 51 pts
- L. Pithie 🇦🇺 Bora – 44 pts
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 40 pts
- H. Tejada 🇨🇴 Astan – 35 pts
There are still 25 points to grab (10 at I.S. and 15 at finish). NB: the I.S. is very, very close to the finish line.
Mountain:
- J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 26 pts
- C. Pedersen 🇩🇰 Soudal-QS – 18 pts
- M. le Berre 🇫🇷 Total – 14 pts
- M. van Dijke 🇳🇱 Bora – 10 pts
- A. Vlasov 🇷🇺 Bora – 9 pts
There are still 30 points to grab: 10 at each of the 3 climbs. So in theory, any rider still present on the race can win!
Youth
G. Steinhauser (🇩🇪 EF), K. Vauquelin (🇫🇷 Ineos) and L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Barhain), ranked 3 to 5 in GC, qualify for this category.
Teams:
- Ineos 🇬🇧
- Bora 🇩🇪 – +2′34″
- Visma 🇳🇱 – +5′44″
The rest is far away.
Bora’s teamwork isn’t the same as on the rainy stage: in the beginning of the second climb of the day, D.F. Martinez🇨🇴 crashed on the (concrete) side of the road while taking over a teammate.
At first he was in pain and shocked by what suddenly and unlikely happened, but once back on the bike behind his teammates, most of the pain must have vanished and his morale was restored by the help he got. They did well, basically alone for 50 km. They restarted about 1 mn behind, and lost a bit in the beginning, perhaps up to 1mn30 versus the best at the front, but then they stabilised that gap, and in the end managed to reduce it, arriving just 45 seconds behind the Vauquelin group.
It wasn’t a great Vingegaard🇩🇰 today:
- he couldn’t drop L. Martinez🇫🇷 in the climb where he attacked;
- not only L. Martinez🇫🇷 wasn’t dropped, but he was easy in the Dane’s backwheel; shaking hands with a mate on the roadside…
- L. Martinez🇫🇷 launched his sprint way too early; in spite of this mistake, Vingegaard🇩🇰 never could overtake the French (until after the line).
Of course, the Dane didn’t need to win, or create gaps, or score time bonifications, so the motivation wasn’t maximal; yet he was clearly trying to win. And of course too, he (and the Frenchman) were easily above the rest of the field in spite of what I perceived as a lack of power compared to previous days.
Vauquelin🇫🇷 wasn’t that great either. Not dropping one direct opponent for a moment, finishing with Baudin🇫🇷 and Rondel🇫🇷. I mean those aren’t bad riders, but they are supposed to be a step below the level with which Vauquelin🇫🇷 pretends to compete. During this Paris-Nice, Vauquelin🇫🇷 never managed to dominate his competitors; the only match was the distant one which happened on the rainy day, which sprang many theories about what he could have achieved if he had been in the front group.
We didn’t see one of those surprising improvements which sometimes happen, by going from Arkéa (in this case) to a major foreign team, anyway.
Tejada (🇨🇴 Astana) won again the sprint of the Vauquelin group, easily. Including his stage victory, that’s 3 stage podiums in 3 ‘real’ stages in a row. Sweet UCI points 🍬 🍭 🧁
Not a single change within top-12 on this last day of race, despite the terrain.
Vingegaard🇩🇰 wins all 3 jerseys: GC, points, mountain! despite the attempt of V. Paret-Peintre (🇫🇷 Soudal-QS) who scored max points at the first 2 passes. But the Dane was scoring behind him as well on those passes (that’s the problem of those secondary classifications, when you are going alone).
Several riders didn’t start today, including 2 at Décathlon and Costiou at FDJ.
Many more didn’t finish the stage, most likely because riders more than 15 minutes behind at some point in the race were eliminated. What an asinine decision for the last miles of an 8-day race, and riders who survived the bad weather! 😠
So in the end there are less than 90 finishers…
It is interesting that Cavagna (🇫🇷 FDJ) managed to remain 16th in GC. 30 minutes behind, of course, but still, that seems to confirm (after his stage podium on the Time Trial of UAE tour) that he found a level of performance that was lost for several years, during which he was really bad. That’s not something I expected from him this year. I am not sure that much can be built over that, but at least he should be able to be a useful domestique this year. Pacher🇫🇷 seems to experience a bit of a revival too, this season. A pity FDJ only has one leader in working order (Grégoire)…
At Décathlon, Prodhomme🇫🇷 has been rather disappointing. 17th in the last stage (that’s the group caught up by the Bora rescue team); 12th in stage 6 (Apt), in the group for place 2, but in that group were several sprinters as well. He can’t find his legs this year: the two stages I quoted are his best performances so far.
In the past, I have been complaining that this race was too much about Nice. Well, this year, we never saw Nice…
Stage 7
…will be shortened due to weather forecast.
So far, it seems that the stage will simply stop in Isola, where the Intermediate Sprint was planned on the original course:
(see the beautiful, very readable official profile in light grey over white, like before I altered the original ones…)
BTW, even without the shortening of the stage, the TV broadcast was supposed to start significantly earlier today.
Only 122 riders left, and with some cold rain and perhaps a bit or snowfall or icefall on the menu today, we shall probably see more week-end departures.
NEW CHANGE
Due to the not nice weather in Nice, the beginning of the stage is removed too. The new start shall be located at where the Intermediate Sprint was moved yesterday (le Plan du Var).
Only less than 50 km remain. A long slightly uphill false-flat, made of the road at the bottom of the valleys of the Var (a bit, first) and then of the Tinée.
Many riders didn’t start. The peloton is now down to 110 riders. Bessèges, here we are! 😃
Q36.5 and Jayco only have 3 riders. Alpecin, Lidl-Trek, Bahrain, Movistar, Picnic and Uno-X only have 4.
Only less than 50 km remain. A long slightly uphill false-flat, made of the road at the bottom of the valleys of the Var (a bit, first) and then of the Tinée.
Nobody but an Alpecin and then Vinokourov Junior tried to race a bit. Yet, the peloton managed to crash twice in the last 3 miles on that smooth wide road in uphill false-flat…
The start was pushed back again and again, because 3 riders managed to crash in a round-about at 20km/h while they were chatting during neutral start, just before where the real start should have been given, 1 of them (Denz) hanged around at the back for miles instead of joining back the peloton, then when he finally joined it, there was a village, so the start couldn’t be given, and of course another rider had a puncture in that village…
Stage 5
Another 3 riders didn’t start. A Jayco and Sivakov (🇷🇺🇫🇷 UAE) withdrew early in the stage too.
- Sivakov was crap already on the TTT, and yesterday probably didn’t help.
- Jayco is down to 3 riders.
Gaudu (🇫🇷 FDJ) is dropped by the peloton in or at the top of the first 3rd category climb of the day…
20 km farther, Gaudu🇫🇷’s goin’ home… ➡️ 🏚️
I thought it could be one of his early failures when a stage starts quickly on a hilly terrain and the battle for breakaway remains intense for 1 or 2 hours, and then he recovers and catches up with the main groups, as he is familiar with this type of temporary failures, but no.
Before it started, everyone said that the course of this Paris–Nice would not allow creating gaps. Well… 🤣
It was quite a race today again. It lacked the harsh weather and dramatic events of yesterday, but otherwise…
After the first 70 km of battle to create a breakaway, the rest was short before the final series of 4 Ardèchois climbs. In fact even that part wasn’t eventless, as Campenaerts (🇧🇪 Visma) and two Movistar had decided to make a (big) jump from the peloton to the breakaway (and succeeded).
Visma was keeping the gap suspiciously low. As soon as the first climb (Sècheras) started, there was an attack in the breakaway, and an acceleration by Armirail (🇫🇷 Visma) at the front of the peloton. In the breakaway, I think (I missed a few seconds) that Cavagna (🇫🇷 FDJ) was the first to drop after Cepeda (🇪🇨 Movistar) attacked, followed at distance by Prodhomme (🇫🇷 Décathlon) and Vlasov (🇷🇺 Bora), and farther by Tarling (🇬🇧 Ineos, in the breakaway again!) and Campenaerts🇧🇪. In the peloton, Armirail🇫🇷’s attack reduced it to about 30 riders, but as he was the only teammate of Vingegaard🇩🇰 left, he reduced his pace mid-slope.
Then Vingegaard🇩🇰 got Campenaerts🇧🇪 coming back from the breakaway, to help him catch Cepeda🇪🇨 and accelerate at the beginning of the second climb. While the peloton was being thinned again, Vingegaard🇩🇰 attacked; L. Martinez (🇫🇷 Bahrein) tried to follow a bit, to no avail (he also had tried to attack a few seconds before Vingegaard🇩🇰, I think, or was it someone else? edit: most likely Paret-Peintre). Ineos, with Onley🇬🇧 pulling Vauquelin🇫🇷, was preparing to attack too, but they didn’t have the time.
Behind were mostly the top riders from yesterday, in disorderly positions, with riders dropping then coming back. But they didn’t help each other much: in the following sections, they mostly attacked each other, stopped, attacked and so on. The only successful attack was V. Paret-Peintre’s (the 🇫🇷 skeleton, Soudal-QS) attack #17.
Summary of the day: Daddy Jonas teaches the kids a lesson.
Among the non-Danish top-10 riders, Vauquelin🇫🇷 didn’t look as strong as he was yesterday, nor as he hoped to be; the legs didn’t exactly follow his will to climb in the classification.
The time lost looking at each other in the first (non-Danish) group allowed Rondel (🇫🇷 Tudor) and even Soler (🇪🇸 UAE) to come back. So, Soler🇪🇸 is still an important threat for L. Martinez🇫🇷’s 5th place in GC, deprived of the last time bonus by Tejada’s (🇨🇴 Astana) sprint.
Good performance by 37 years old I. Izagirre (🇪🇸 Cofidis) who is in good shape at the moment, and managed to stay with Vauquelin🇫🇷 and Co. 👍 (and that’s 20 UCI points for his Pro Team).
Nice roads/landscape today.
Only 129 rides left. In Nice, it will look like Bessèges’ peloton 😃
FDJ’s secondary leader, Costiou🇫🇷, finished today ½ hour behind the winner, for the second day in a row. He has now the worst GC position in his team, 113th at 1 hour…
Only 129 rides left. In Nice, it will look like Bessèges’ peloton 😃
128, as Romeo (🇪🇸 Movistar) won’t restart, despite having joined the breakaway with Campenaerts🇧🇪 yesterday. A scheme I seem to see more and more often:
- a leader/outsider suffers a big trouble (illness, crash, …) one day;
- next day or day after, as he is no longer in GC, he (easily) breaks away, hoping for a stage win;
- he doesn’t succeed, and packs his bags before the day is over.
Anyway, Movistar is now down to 4 riders. Still one more than Jayco.
I thought yesterday was a good stage, though I think the distance with which Vingegaard won was larger than it needed to be because the group behind just couldn’t work together. I guess they’re resigned to fighting for 2nd - which I understand, they’re not catching Vingegaard.
I wonder if he will go for more stages - usually he takes 2 in a row and then relaxes and plays it more or less safe. But he’s a lot more explosive than he used to be, so maybe he can’t help himself.
I thought yesterday was a good stage, though I think the distance with which Vingegaard won was larger than it needed to be because the group behind just couldn’t work together. I guess they’re resigned to fighting for 2nd - which I understand, they’re not catching Vingegaard.
Yes. I think we can even go into detail a bit farther.
There was not an inch flat or flat-ish after the moment Vingegaard attacked, therefore the advantage of a group over a single man was weak (in these modern times, basically nil). That’s why everyone seemed to have wanted to attack right there.
He attacked in the St-Jean climb there:
But this being stated, not only they didn’t work together well, but they actively worked against each other (too many Frenchmen ⇒ too much infighting?). They did that so much, that they were caught up by weaker, dropped, more isolated riders. So they were on average really slow; and therefore as you say lost way more time to Vingegaard that they could have.
I wonder if he will go for more stages - usually he takes 2 in a row and then relaxes and plays it more or less safe. But he’s a lot more explosive than he used to be, so maybe he can’t help himself.
The opposition having been decimated (before and during the race), and him being in good shape, he may accidentally win other stages, if his team doesn’t put 10 kg of lead in his romper suit 😆 Having 4 Frenchmen in top-10 is a sign that riders who could have competed with Vingegaard are not there any more 😜
Anyway, yesterday’s victory was planned by the team (Campenaerts positioning, the chase, the use of Armirail and Campenaerts, the perfect location for the attack), and perhaps the team will want to have a rest, even if Vingegaard is still hungry. If they don’t want to rest, now… he may win all 3 remaining stages 😀
If they don’t want to rest, now… he may win all 3 remaining stages 😀
Don’t threaten me with a good time! I’d like to see the people who claim he is well below Pogacar’s level start to wonder a bit.
Still, for the sake of cycling and the race, let’s hope not,
I forgot the case where Visma wants to rest, but other teams bring Vingegaard in the same position his team would have done. That’s quite common, after all.
Stage 6
It could very well have happened today, with Cofidis and then Lidl-Trek doing the meat of the work, then Bahrein and L. Martinez🇫🇷 attacking, if Vingegaard🇩🇰 (who followed him easily) had wished to counter-attack. The only Visma contribution would have been Campenaerts🇧🇪 pulling after Lidl-trek stopped.
Fun fact: fat-ass Plowright (🇦🇺 Alpecin) won 3 places in GC today, he is now 14th!
Tejada (🇨🇴 Astana) enters top-10, strangely not thanks to his 2 stage podiums in a row, but due to Onley🇬🇧’s withdrawal.
125 in fact. Onley🇬🇧, J. Bernard🇫🇷 and another rider do not start either. Lidl-Trek is thus down to 4 riders too.
Stage 4
Rain, échelons, and large splits in the peloton early in the race, with many co-leaders trapped.
Several crashes in the front group:
- First, Russo🇫🇷, leaving Gaudu🇫🇷 (!) as the only Frenchman ahead in this group of almost 40 riders.
- Then, a sextuple crash wiped out Ineos (Onley🇬🇧 and Tarling🇬🇧) and caused 1 or 2 withdrawals, including Hoole🇳🇱. Apparently, the Ineos riders managed to get back in the group.
Looks to be a hard stage, hope the finale won’t disappoint!
It didn’t.
Bora was super strong, especially the Van Dijke🇳🇱 brothers. D.F. Martinez not so much, he could follow his teammates but couldn’t raise the pace, as we could see as early as the Intermediate Sprint. Anyway, Bora lead basically all day long. It is a pity for the Van Dijke brothers that they stopped their effort in the TTT and arrived several minutes later than their leaders yesterday…
After the Ayuso🇪🇸 crash, there were 2 or 3 guys from the Gaudu🇫🇷* group who were trying to make the jump to the Bora group individually, they came as close as perhaps 25 metres for the closest one, but then they disappeared.
Gaudu🇫🇷 who was falling twice a week last year, picked today amongst all days, not to fall. But even though he finishes in a good group and will get a good position in GC, he isn’t so great: his group was mostly made of riders coming from the ‘peloton’ who chased all day and yet beat him, and he barely distanced the sprinter Plowright (🇦🇺 Alpecin) in the final, very hard climb. Steinhauser (🇩🇪 EF) who attacked in the previous hills and rode more than 25 km alone finishes 1mn30 ahead of him.
Vauquelin🇫🇷 seems pissed at his team, but we don’t know how he managed not to be in the first 40 riders in the first miles of the day despite starting at the front of the peloton, as white jersey wearer. Even late in the stage, after regrouping with several guys from the front, Vauquelin🇫🇷’s group was basically always losing time to the sole 3 then 2 Bora riders pulling in the remains of the front group. Betting on Onley🇬🇧 seemed sensible. The problem is that he turned out being diminished by his little crash, and was ‘killed’ much later by his bike change.
I see Piganzolli (🇮🇹 Visma) DNF. Did he crash? He wasn’t in the front group, was he? There was only one Visma with Vingegaard🇩🇰, and I don’t remember it was him.
The slaughter of favourites and outsiders turns out good, not for a victory, but for a top-10 or top- for French riders Vauquelin, Gaudu and L. Martinez.
It was Affini with Vingegaard. I noticed during the race, with everyone crashing and the rain and the slick roads and the cold, Vingegaard managed to smile a little smile at the camera a couple of times. I think he felt he had a good day despite the conditions and he’s clearly the strongest. I would have wanted to see Ayuso contest his win, but if you don’t stay on the bike you don’t win races…
It was Affini with Vingegaard.
Right!
I noticed during the race, with everyone crashing and the rain and the slick roads and the cold, Vingegaard managed to smile a little smile at the camera a couple of times. I think he felt he had a good day despite the conditions and he’s clearly the strongest.
Indeed, he avoided crashes by staying at the front of the group despite being (almost) isolated. At least, that’s what happened for the Ayuso🇪🇸 crash. By the way, Lidl-Trek is really having a ‘wonderful’ start of the year! Jesus…
Vauquelin🇫🇷 seems pissed at his team, but we don’t know how he managed not to be in the first 40 riders in the first miles of the day despite starting at the front of the peloton, as white jersey wearer.
It sounds like he was more pissed at a Soudal-QS rider who would have ‘pushed’ him into a field at the start of the stage.
Wow, lots of crashes today. Not nice to see people get so hurt.
That’s right but on the other hand, you have sprint stages which are a borefest and cause more crashes, withdrawals and injuries [edit: the list of DNFs expanded since] than this 200 km epic non-stop battle. And you could see Vingegaard cruising in romper suit!
Most riders seem to be within delays, according to the listing on the official site.
The Ayuso crash is the one that caused most withdrawals, apparently; or did the 2 Movistar guys who withdrew (not Romeo, 2 other ones) crash another time?
But that crash was on a standard road, a slight curve with nothing special, no steep slope or anything. It was not filmed so we cannot know what happened. One first crash and then the work of disc brakes, like we saw last year (was it on the Tour of Italy?)?
Stage 3 (Individual Team Time Trial)
I believed that Visma would do better than this. They looked good during the stage, but perhaps they were not comfortable with the new format, and willing to kill two birds with one stone wasn’t the best idea. Anyway, it is not a serious failure either.
Décathlon killed its own birds: by attempting to win the stage, they destroyed any hope for Prodhomme🇫🇷 in GC.
Lidl-Trek did better than I thought. Thus, that’s really good for Ayuso🇪🇸.
UAE did whatever.
We could believe FDJ had done better than expected, but then other teams either did better than Visma, or piled up just before or just after their time, so the result is very average. Unexpectedly, Cofidis managed to finish in the exact same time, this is a good surprise for them.
Farther, it was a bit the same for Bahrein and L. Martinez🇫🇷. While it looked like they would lose about 45 seconds, it wasn’t that bad, but they end up with being a bit over 1 minute behind both Ineos leaders and Ayuso🇪🇸.
The big question here is if Vingegaard can win it, and I personally think he can. I’ve heard other people say it’s not hard enough, though. But I think we’re underestimating his punchyness, the only rider consistently more punchy on hard stages is Pog.
Yeah. I don’t see any particularly frightening competitor for him, if he is in shape.
Pure punchers are generally not consistent (as you highlighted) over a week. Several may win stages, but for GC that should be more difficult for them.
We’ve seen Ayuso🇪🇸 and Almeida🇵🇹 on the Tour of Algarve, and they struggled to make differences with Seixas🇫🇷, Onley🇬🇧 and Riccitello🇺🇸, so this bunch of riders seem pretty much the same, there isn’t one who stands out and appears dominant.
For the TTT, he will have Affini🇮🇹 and Armirail🇫🇷 with him (both won mixed TTT at EC or WC in recent years), so even there his team will probably be favourite, and that would give him a small safety mattress as soon as stage #3.
Gaudu🇫🇷 & Costiou🇫🇷 from FDJ, if you are French and masochist, or if they raise the level they showed lately;
Gaudu was dropped in a climb and DNF today on the Trofeo Laegi Legaigla Laigui Laigueglia🇮🇹. Not sure if he reached the circuit…
Trofeo Laguguigugiglia is a pretty good race, surprised there was no TV this year (every year?). Rai usually has all the minor hilly Italian races.
Oh, and this (minimal but existing) coverage allowed me to understand for the first time, when I recognised the Capo Mele name in the mouth of the Italian commentator, that this race was in fact located in the area near San Remo.
And Laigueglia is simply the name of the coastal town just before that capo in Milan–San-Remo, here ridden in the opposite way inside the final circuit.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/MJa2HUFAuLFcF1iF9 (zoom out)
TV coverage is mandatory for a .Pro I think. It was planned but cancelled a few days before the race, perhaps due to the change of organiser. Yet there was some coverage: on the Youtube channel of the Lega, they showed the last 24 km or so, at 5 PM as pre-recorded (very slightly pre-recorded, broadcasted right as the race was finishing).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmSb23CMWnc
It is not the first time I watch an Italian race this way, on a Youtube channel of the League or of the Ministry of Sports. I can’t remember which one(s) exactly, perhaps one of the Autumn classics, perhaps the Settimana Internazionale C&B or the Tour of Abbruzo. Hmm, checking my old posts in French, it cannot be Abruzzo as that tour was shown on traditional TV in France. Anyway, I already watched a race or two this way 😀
Not in Italy, but I remember watching the Tour of Greece (Hellas) on Youtube too: https://www.youtube.com/@tourofhellas/streams I see that they uploaded a presentation of the (May) 2026 race: 1h45 with 5 minutes of interest and the rest of suits and ties’ speeches, apparently 😅
Stage 2
Some of the same guys as yesterday in a breakaway who only went ahead for mountain points: C. Pedersen🇩🇰, Le Berre🇫🇷, his caravan and 0 chance or intent to reach the finish. So I left after they scored the last points, because there were not going to go anywhere. I came back by chance for the Intermediate Sprint, to see Ayuso🇪🇸 get a few bonus seconds (as he was doing in Algarve).
Then I left again and completely forgot about this so promising stage, which was long finished when I finally remembered it existed. So I missed all the crashes, which were the only ‘interesting’ thing that could happen on this stage.
Stage 1
The punchy climbs in the circuit made zero difference. And nobody really tried, apparently, except Costiou in the final metres. I say ‘apparently’ because, like yesterday, the TV director didn’t show us the peloton in the climb 🙄
So it was an almost complete bunch for the finish. Combine this with the most idiotic last km design I have seen in a while, and of course there were 2 crashes at and a bit after the narrow curve, and the sprint was only disputed between the few riders who weren’t stopped by the crashes.
The final circuit in general was also one of the ugliest ones I ever saw. On top of this crappy, narrow, width-changing last km: industrial areas, roundabouts and traffic separators, road works, earth-moving areas, waste grounds, forsaken roads, scrapyards, gipsy camps and an unusual amount of gendarmes to make sure they don’t start driving up the road.
While EF are finally sticking their head out of the water, Picnic isn’t. Only their sprinters made it to the finish in the same time as the peloton; all other riders are several minutes behind: so much for GC…
Not the greatest route design to be sure, Vingegaard was also quite critical after the race. I actually thought the break had a chance until Amirail took the front, he’s clearly in great shape.
I actually thought the break had a chance until Amirail took the front, he’s clearly in great shape.
The chase was strange. Between -60 and -50 km, the peloton was speeding like maniacs; I remember a downhill false flat, were they were spinning pedals like crazy, the camera motorbike at the front was suffering, hitting 30 km/h speed bumps at an actual speed of perhaps 80 km/h… It was at that moment very different from a few past editions, where crashes would happen because the peloton would go very slowly for hours (close to 35 km/h) and the riders would lose their concentration.
Then there were times were they gave up 40 seconds for free. Climb were ridden on alternative current, sometimes the breakaway would go faster, sometimes slower.
Yes, after the gap had been oscillating around 1mn – 1mn15 for 40 km, it looked like the breakaway had done the hardest part, and yet that’s when they really started to lose time.
The chase was strange. Between -60 and -50 km, the peloton was speeding like maniacs; I remember a downhill false flat, were they were spinning pedals like crazy, the camera motorbike at the front was suffering, hitting 30 km/h speed bumps at an actual speed of perhaps 80 km/h… It was at that moment very different from a few past editions, where crashes would happen because the peloton would go very slowly for hours (close to 35 km/h) and the riders would lose their concentration.
From what I could check on PCS, it seems that it was the fastest first stage of Paris-Nice ever.
(To define ‘ever’, I only checked a bit more than 10 years and assume earlier ones would be slower…)
We may keep an eye on (among others):
- Vingegaard🇩🇰 from Visma, for his first race since his withdrawal from the European Championship last year;
- Almeida🇵🇹 from UAE, a little bit sluggish so far;
Almeida🇵🇹, ill, won’t start. McNulty🇺🇸 will thus represent UAE.
We may keep an eye on (among others):
- Ayuso🇪🇸 & Skjelmose🇩🇰 from Lidl-Trek;
Skjelmose🇩🇰 won’t start either because of some pain in a wrist.
I hadn’t listed him, but Poole (🇬🇧 Picnic) is also out.
If it goes on like this, we may award the victory to Vingegaard and save everyone one week of effort 😆
Well, there’s still Ayuso. I hope Vingegaard wins, not only because he’s my compatriot but also because it’s a week-long race he hasn’t won. I’d love to see him win the big ones, so far he has won: Basque, Dauphiné, Tirreno, Pologne.
That leaves (of the big ones): Romandie, Suisse, and Paris Nice.
It’s doable, I think, and could be a career goal.
