Official website of the Paris–Nice cycling race. “The sun’s race”.
www.paris-nice.fr
Official website of the Paris–Nice cycling race. “The sun’s race”.

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.

PCS page

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):

  • Deschanel2027@sh.itjust.worksOPM
    1·
    9 days ago

    Stage 8

    Standings before this last stage:

    General classification:

    1. J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma
    2. D.F. Martinez 🇨🇴 Bora – +3′22″
    3. G. Steinhauser 🇩🇪 EF – +5′50″
    4. K. Vauquelin 🇫🇷 Ineos – +6′09″
    5. L. Martinez 🇫🇷 Bahrain – +7′37″
    6. M. Soler 🇪🇸 UAE – +8′15″
    7. I. Izagirre 🇪🇸 Cofidis – +9′02″

    Points:

    1. D. Godon 🇫🇷 Ineos – 55 pts
    2. L. Lamperti 🇺🇸 EF – 51 pts
    3. L. Pithie 🇦🇺 Bora – 44 pts
    4. J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 40 pts
    5. 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:

    1. J. Vingegaard 🇩🇰 Visma – 26 pts
    2. C. Pedersen 🇩🇰 Soudal-QS – 18 pts
    3. M. le Berre 🇫🇷 Total – 14 pts
    4. M. van Dijke 🇳🇱 Bora – 10 pts
    5. 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:

    1. Ineos 🇬🇧
    2. Bora 🇩🇪 – +2′34″
    3. Visma 🇳🇱 – +5′44″

    The rest is far away.

    • Deschanel2027@sh.itjust.worksOPM
      1·
      7 days ago

      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…