Paris-Nice Overview

Paris-Nice leaves the French capital for the Mediterranean coast and its sunshine. Along the way there’s a variety of terrain including the high mountains. A mini Tour de France in March. A fine race it its own right, the daily battles also give us a clue to the form of riders ahead of the classics.

Here’s an overview for the whole race. There’s a concise preview of every stage with my take on the day plus plenty of other information on the prizes, jerseys, TV schedules and more.

In addition, on the morning of every stage you’ll find a separate blog posting with updates and information called “The Spin”. This daily preview will be updated to reflect current news and also includes detailed information on the route, the kind of precision normally reserved for a team briefing.

The pre-prologue Spin on Saturday will cover the overall contenders as well as the prologue but for now note we should see a battle between Robert Gesink, Tejay van Garderen, Jacob Fuglsang, J-C Péraud, Andrew Talansky, Andreas Klöden, Nicolas Roche, Dennis Menchov and Richie Porte for the overall with others to consider plus a good mix for the sprints and hilly stages with the likes of Philippe Gilbert, Tom Boonen, Rein Taaramae, Michael Matthews and Thomas de Gendt already names to think about. If many big names will be in Italy for Tirreno Adriatico there’s still a good field here.

Prologue |

Stage 1 |

Stage 2 |

Stage 3 |

Stage 4 |

Stage 5 |

Stage 6 |

Stage 7 |

Rider list | The jerseys, points and prizes | The unmissable stages | TV schedule

This is a blog post but there’s a permanent page at inrng.com/paris-nice which can be easily reached during the race via the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Prologue – Sunday 3 March

A suburban start with the prologue taking place in a built-up area west of Paris on land caught in a meander of the Seine river. The route is flat, there is a drag up towards the halfway point but the height gained is small, a railway bridge near the finish provides more elevation. Riders will still need to get their gearing right for there are 10 corners in the space of three kilometres. This is a curious course held on small roads complete with raised speed bumps and sunken inspection covers that flies past indifferent looking houses, cafés and blocks of flats. It’s a time trial but will suit the prologue specialists and watch for the sprinters who can master the sprint-brake-corner-sprint routine.

Houilles should be famous for Victor Schoelcher because he is the man who helped abolish slavery in France. Celebrated in France’s colonies today he’s more a forgotten figure on the mainland.

Stage 1 – Monday 4 March

A day for the sprinters as the race heads south of Paris via commuter towns to the flat lands where wheat is grown as far as the eye can see to provide the flour needed for the 10 billion baguettes consumed in France each year. Somehow they’ve found a climb with a road that rises at 4% for 500m. The region is flat but the race has to award a mountains jersey so this will do.

This looks like a day for the sprinters but note two things. First there are time bonuses which creates added incentives for the intermediate sprint and the finish but also the finish in Nemours is after a circuit, the race will enter Nemours and then leave for a 47km loop which means if the wind is blowing then at some point there will be crosswinds.

Stage 2 – Tuesday 5 March

Another day for the sprinters but again a circuit finish at the end could split things if the wind is blowing. The race passes through Gien, the home of Pierre Rolland, proof that mountain stage winners can live in the flat lands. The final straight is worth a mention being four kilometres long.

Stage 3 – Wednesday 6 March

Another circuit finish at the end of this stage which crosses the rural Auvergne region and its extinct volcanoes. There’s a sprint on the finish line before the race heads out for some more climbing before descending back to Brioude, the hometown of Ag2r’s Romain Bardet.

This looks like a stage where a reduced bunch will contest the finish with riders attacking and teams setting the pace to eliminate the sprinters before the flat finish.

Stage 4 – Thursday 7 March

Seven climbs on the day make this an important stage but perhaps one where the overall contenders play it safe and let a breakaway go away. Easier said than done as half the teams will want to place a rider in the early move on roads which climb from the start, if the breakaway chemistry isn’t right then the race could be very fast for the first hour. The finish is downhill with a sharp bend 500 metres from the line.

Stage 5 – Friday 8 March

The Queen Stage of the 2013 Paris-Nice with the high altitude finish on the Montagne de Lure. The Lure is the smaller sister of Mont Ventoux and 13.8km at a gradient of 6.6%, flattered by a softer section in the middle before the final four kilometres rise at over 7% to the line. For sure it’s not the Stelvio, Galibier or Ventoux but it’s March and 1,600m is plenty. Generally this is a steady ascension to reward the climbers but where overall contenders can pace themselves to limit the losses.

The mountain should dominate the stage in the way it dominates the landscapes as teams will look to set a pace for their protected riders. Expect a showdown here and remember the pure climbers need to take time ahead of the final time trial. When the race visited in 2009 Alberto Contador won.

Stage 6 – Saturday 9 March

Fine scenery lies ahead as the race heads for Nice and the training roads of a sizeable proportion of the bunch especially in the hills behind Grasse with the Col du Ferrier. These are tricky roads and it can be hard to control the race but the run to Nice gets easier and can suit a chase. Often a group of 20-30 riders can come in for the finish.

Stage 7 – Sunday 10 March

The historic Col d’Eze time trial is here again, a fixture in the race since the 1970s, it disappeared in the last decade but returned last year where Wiggins and Westra battled with the Brit pacing himself to win the race overall. It’s a tough effort and much harder than the mere nine kilometres suggests. It’s suited to specialists able to pace themselves on the ever-changing gradients. Normally the weather is fine but if otherwise it gets even harder with the crosswind from the sea making it even harder.

The Jerseys, Points and Prizes

There are four jerseys and they are similar to the Tour de France. In years past Paris-Nice awarded a white jersey to the leader but Tour de France organisers ASO have taken over the race and imposed their distinctive branding.

The yellow jersey is the overall leader, the rider with the shortest cumulative time for all stages. Note time bonuses available in this race at the finish line or intermediate sprints, 10 – 6 – 4 seconds and 3 – 2 – 1 seconds respectively. It is sponsored by LCL, a French bank. The overall winner collects €16,000.

The green jersey is the points jersey. There are points for the first 20 on every stage (25 – 22 – 20 – 18 – 16 – 15 – 14 – 13 – 12 – 11 – 10 – 9 – 8 -7 – 6 -5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1) and intermediate sprints (3 – 2 – 1). The competition is sponsored by PMU, a new sponsor for 2013 for Paris-Nice but the long time name on the Tour de France green jersey. It is the state-owned gambling operation. The holder after the final stage wins €2,000.

The polka dot jersey is for the best climber. Note the race has three categories of climb, unlike the Tour de France with its five labels. Third category climbs have 4 – 2 – 1 points for the first three; second category climbs have 7 – 5 – 3 – 2 – 1 points for the first five and first category climbs offer 10 – 8 – 6 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 for the first seven. Sponsored by Alden, which makes satellite TV accessories. The holder after the final stage wins €2,000.

The white jersey is for the best young rider, defined as those born after 1 January 1988. It is sponsored by Bürstner who make camping cars.

Stage wins earn €4,000 with cash down to 20th place.

The unmissable stages
Nobody knows what the race will bring and one of the features of Paris-Nice is the way the wind can ravage the peloton on the flat stages to make for a technical and tactical finish on a day when you’d just expect a sprint finish plus the hilly stages promise actionn and breakaways. So look for the daily “Spin” previews on here for tips on the weather.

• Stage 1 will show us how the sprint trains are working
• Stage 3 has a tricky finish, worth watching in its own right but we might get some clues about rider form for Milan-Sanremo
• Stage 5 is the unmissable summit finish
• Stage 7 is a time trial and these often don’t make for great TV but we had suspense right until the end last year

TV coverage
There’s daily coverage from French TV and Eurosport International and more. The following channels will have live coverage:

• Belgium (RTBF, VRT), Denmark (DKTV2), Spain (Teledeporte), Italy (Rai), Luxembourg (RTL), Norway (TV2), Netherlands (NOS), Switzerland (RTS/RSI), Africa (SuperSport), Japan (J Sports), New Zealand (Sky TV), Latin America (TDN), USA (NBC)
• Whilst Ireland (TG4), Czech (CT4), Britain (ITV4), Latin America (DirecTV, ESPN Inter, ESPN Brasil), Australia (SBS), Canada (RDS), Middle-East (Dubai Sports), USA/Canada (NBC Sports) are all promising highlights packages.

Depending on where you live you can pay for Eurosport’s video content via the Eurosport Player or you can find a pirate video stream via sites like cyclingfans.com or steephill.tv. Either way there is plenty of airtime and here is the French TV schedule with local Euro CET time which indicates when there will be live video.

• Sunday 3 March: 3.20 – 4.55pm
• Monday 4 March: 2.55 – 4.10pm
• Tuesday 5 March: 2.55 – 4.10pm
• Wednesday 6 March: 2.55 – 4.10pm
• Thursday 7 March: 2.55 – 4.10pm
• Friday 8 March: 2.55 – 4.10pm
• Saturday 9 March: 3.25 – 4.50pm
• Sunday 10 March: 3.20 – 4.55pm

Talking of TV and timings, look out for the new motorbike on the race that will replace the old blackboard system used to give riders the time gaps and composition of breakaways.

Rider list

SKY PROCYCLING
SKY GBR
1 Richie PORTE
2 Ian BOSWELL
3 Vasili KIRYIENKA
4 David LOPEZ GARCIA
5 Danny PATE
6 Kanstantsin SIUTSOV
7 Jonathan TIERNAN LOCKE
8 Xabier ZANDIO

VACANSOLEIL-DCM
VCD NED
11 Lieuwe WESTRA
12 Kris BOECKMANS
13 Thomas DE GENDT
14 Romain FEILLU
15 Martijn KEIZER
16 Bjorn LEUKEMANS
17 Bertjan LINDEMAN
18 Frederik VEUCHELEN

MOVISTAR TEAM
MOV ESP
21 Rui Alberto COSTA
22 Imanol ERVITI
23 José Ivan GUTIERREZ
24 Jesus HERRADA LOPEZ
25 Javier MORENO
26 Ruben PLAZA MOLINA
27 Nairo Alexander QUINTANA ROJAS
28 Jose Joaquin ROJAS

BLANCO PRO CYCLING TEAM
BLA NED
31 Robert GESINK
32 Stef CLEMENT
33 Rick FLENS
34 Wilco KELDERMAN
35 Steven KRUIJSWIJK
36 Mark RENSHAW
37 David TANNER
38 Maarten TJALLINGII

EUSKALTEL – EUSKADI
EUS ESP
41 Mikel ASTARLOZA
42 Ion IZAGIRRE INSAUSTI
43 Gorka IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI
44 Jure KOCJAN
45 Mikel NIEVE ITURRALDE
46 Ruben PEREZ MORENO
47 Romain SICARD
48 Gorka VERDUGO

RADIOSHACK LEOPARD
RLT LUX
51 Maxime MONFORT
52 Laurent DIDIER
53 Tony GALLOPIN
54 Markel IRIZAR
55 Robert KISERLOVSKI
56 Andréas KLÖDEN
57 Gregory RAST
58 Jens VOIGT

LAMPRE – MERIDA
LAM ITA
61 Diego ULISSI
62 Mattia CATTANEO
63 Kristijan DURASEK
64 Elia FAVILLI
65 Manuele MORI
66 Andrea Francesco PALINI
67 Alessandro PETACCHI
68 Michele SCARPONI

LOTTO-BELISOL
LTB BEL
71 Lars Ytting BAK
72 Dirk BELLEMAKERS
73 Gaëtan BILLE
74 Bart DE CLERCQ
75 Francis DE GREEF
76 Jens DEBUSSCHERE
77 Dennis VANENDERT
78 Frederik WILLEMS

ORICA GREENEDGE
OGE AUS
81 Simon GERRANS
82 Michael ALBASINI
83 Fumiyuki BEPPU
84 Simon CLARKE
85 Baden COOKE
86 Leigh HOWARD
87 Jens KEUKELEIRE
88 Michael MATTHEWS

FDJ
FDJ FRA
91 Nacer BOUHANNI
92 William BONNET
93 Pierrick FEDRIGO
94 Alexandre GENIEZ
95 Arnold JEANNESSON
96 Yoann OFFREDO
97 Jérémy ROY
98 Geoffrey SOUPE

BMC RACING TEAM
BMC USA
101 Philippe GILBERT
102 Brent BOOKWALTER
103 Mathias FRANK
104 Amaël MOINARD
105 Dominik NERZ
106 Daniel OSS
107 Ivan SANTAROMITA
108 Tejay VAN GARDEREN

AG2R LA MONDIALE
ALM FRA
111 Jean-Christophe PERAUD
112 Romain BARDET
113 Guillaume BONNAFOND
114 Maxime BOUET
115 Samuel DUMOULIN
116 Hubert DUPONT
117 Yauheni HUTAROVICH
118 Sébastien MINARD

TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF
TST DEN
121 Nicolas ROCHE
122 Matti BRESCHEL
123 Mads CHRISTENSEN
124 Anders LUND
125 Michael MORKOV
126 Evgeni PETROV
127 Nicki SORENSEN
128 Rory SUTHERLAND

SOJASUN
SOJ FRA
131 Jonathan HIVERT
132 Julien EL FARES
133 Cyril LEMOINE
134 Rémi PAURIOL
135 Julien SIMON
136 Evaldas SISKEVICIUS
137 Yannick TALABARDON
138 Alexis VUILLERMOZ

GARMIN – SHARP
GRS USA
141 Andrew TALANSKY
142 Jack BAUER
143 Alex HOWES
144 Andreas KLIER
145 David MILLAR
146 Jacob RATHE
147 Johan VAN SUMMEREN
148 Fabian WEGMANN

ASTANA PRO TEAM
AST KAZ
151 Jakob FUGLSANG
152 Borut BOZIC
153 Enrico GASPAROTTO
154 Andriy GRIVKO
155 Maxim IGLINSKIY
156 Kevin SEELDRAYERS
157 Egor SILIN
158 Andrey ZEITS

TEAM EUROPCAR
EUC FRA
161 Thomas VOECKLER
162 Jérome COUSIN
163 Damien GAUDIN
164 Vincent JEROME
165 Davide MALACARNE
166 Alexandre PICHOT
167 Angelo TULIK
168 Sébastien TURGOT

OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP
OPQ BEL
171 Sylvain CHAVANEL
172 Tom BOONEN
173 Kevin DE WEERT
174 Nikolas MAES
175 Gianni MEERSMAN
176 Jérôme PINEAU
177 Stijn VANDENBERGH
178 Peter VELITS

KATUSHA TEAM
KAT RUS
181 Simon SPILAK
182 Xavier FLORENCIO CABRE
183 Alexander KRISTOFF
184 Alberto LOSADA ALGUACIL
185 Denis MENCHOV
186 Gatis SMUKULIS
187 Yury TROFIMOV
188 Eduard VORGANOV

COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS
COF FRA
191 Rein TAARAMAE
192 Jérôme COPPEL
193 Egoitz GARCIA ECHEGUIBEL
194 Christophe LE MEVEL
195 Romain LEMARCHAND
196 Luis Angel MATE MARDONES
197 Daniel NAVARRO
198 Romain ZINGLE

CANNONDALE
CAN ITA
201 Ivan BASSO
202 Mauro DA DALTO
203 Alessandro DE MARCHI
204 Lucas Sebastian HAEDO
205 Edward KING
206 Paolo LONGO BORGHINI
207 Daniele RATTO
208 Elia VIVIANI

TEAM ARGOS-SHIMANO
ARG NED
211 Marcel KITTEL
212 Warren BARGUIL
213 Roy CURVERS
214 Bert DE BACKER
215 Yann HUGUET
216 Thierry HUPOND
217 Tom STAMSNIJDER
218 Tom VEELERS

IAM CYCLING
IAM SUI
221 Thomas LÖVKVIST
222 Marco BANDIERA
223 Stephan DENIFL
224 Martin ELMIGER
225 Heinrich HAUSSLER
226 Sébastien HINAULT
227 Gustav LARSSON
228 Johann TSCHOPP