Today’s stage is all about the succession of sharp climbs before the wall-like finish.
L’Eloge des Glacés: the early breakaway had about three minutes when Santiago Buitrago crashed and he was out of the race. Moments later Josh Tarling and Tobias Foss surged out of the break and the race caught fire, Ineos were launching a move with 50km to go and Ben Swift’s place in the breakaway ahead made more sense.
Only Mother Nature had other plans as Paris-Nice turned into Paris-Ice. A hailstorm pounded the course and froze the roads and soon the race was neutralised. At first it seemed practical to allow riders to don wet weather gear but the course was also blocked after a police moto and Decathlon team car came off the roads. The neutralisation lasted around 45 minutes, some of it halted, some rolling. It left riders were milling around in the damp air (2°C according to FranceTV’s Thomas Voecker). If they stood still they’d cool down, while to ride was to get wind chill from wet clothes.
With teams split on what to do, the restart had its inequity as to who was near hypothermic or not by then. It saw several contenders frozen out, among them Ben O’Connor, Neilson Powless and Aleksandr Vlasov.
Reaching the foot of the Loge des Garde Tobias Foss was still up the road as Mads Pedersen did a monster turn on the front of the group for approaching half of the climb and he reduced the group down to less than 15 riders.
Florian Lipowitz and Lenny Martinez tried moves, no success but they demonstrated form and intent. With 2km to go Vingegaard jumped and Martinez followed. Vingegaard shook off the Frenchman but struggled to open up a lead, first holding the gap of under 10 seconds then fading. João Almeida jumped in the final metres to catch and pass the Dane. Having started the day with 29 riders within a minute of the lead, we’re down to seven with Vingegaard in yellow today.
The Route: 196km and the final 50km see a series of sharp climbs, the route turns off main roads to tackle tertiary side roads. The gradients on the stage profile look more like suggestions.
The first, Château Jaune, sets the tone, a gentle start and a “nothing to write home about” feel to start then it starts to bite and soon it’s on a 16% ramp with more to come. But it’s short. After a descent down a big road it’s straight onto another steep kicker but this time with a false flat over the top. Sprinters can be dropped on these climbs but there’s time to regroup and main roads to aid any chase.
The climb of Chavagneux the most straightforward. The penultimate one of Arzay starts gently again but coming into the village itself there’s a right turn and a warning sign saying 22%. It’s more like 16-18% but that’s plenty and on a small road too. Over the top and around to the intermediate sprint which is uphill.
It doesn’t show on the profile but there’s an extra climb to the village of Ornacieux, the best part of a kilometre long and 10% before a descent and the fast run to La Côte-Saint-André.
The Finish: the graphic tells a very partial story here. After a rise uphill into town and then a left turn to climb past some shops, this eases up briefly and the road widens, a last moment to move up any places without costing too much energy. Then uphill via a series of steep roads lined with crosses to the Notre Dame de Sciez chapel, a Mur de Huy feel. There are several bends and the gradient changes in places making it hard to time efforts. The road gets narrower towards the top and the final 800m have plenty of 14-16% sections. A final bend with less than 200m to go is important as anyone going in with momentum can hope to take it to the line.
The Contenders: can Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) revive the good old days? His experience in pacing an uphill effort should help and apparently he’s visited this climb too but it won’t be easy to be as incisive.
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) should be close but of course he’d like a much longer climb. Instead yesterday’s winner João Almeida (UAE) has a good chance again and can hope to take the win and time bonus.
Santiago Buitrago was the archetypal pick and in his absence Lenny Martinez (Bahrain) has a good chance here. Matthias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) was third yesterday so a candidate but his linear way of riding suggests trying to surge clear today could be hard.
The breakaway today should be more crowded but we’re likely to see UAE and Visma-LAB lead the chase. Still outside chances for Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ), Mauro Schmid (Jayco), Luca Vergalito (Alpecin-Deceunink) and Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels)
 |
Almeida |
 |
Martinez, Skjelmose |
 |
Vingegaard, Alaphilippe, Narvaez, Jorgenson, Powless |
Weather: cold at the start with traces of snow melting away, then weak sunshine and 10°C, hopefully.
TV: the final 90 minutes live so all the steep climbs before the finish at 4.30pm CET.
Paris-Nice had a stage finish here for the first time in 2020. This was when Covid was spreading and when Lawson Craddock left the race here with a fever there was a lot of anxiety, although he later tested negative. There’s a pre and post Covid aspect to pro cycling, especially visible for the grand tours as trying to win multiple editions always requires some fortune along the way, now this also includes avoiding an infectious respiratory illness that can do the rounds in summer. Indurain, Hinault, Anquetil and Merckx didn’t face this.
2020’s stage was won by Niccolo Bonifazio, jumping from the bunch to catch and pass Jan Tratnik who’d been out all day. While the postcard here pictures Saint-André’s historic old town the finish that year was on a drab road out of town, this blog’s preview wrote the finish was “completely flat and near-featureless for the final 5km”. This is often the case for bike races, space is needed the finish line arch, waiting team buses and more, practicality at the expense of local charm. Today’s finish may be out of town too but as it’s on the hillside up a narrow road there’s charm, scenery and added sport too.
Indeed today’s stage is a mini-case study in course design, the route seeking out any small climbs possible when a few years ago it would have trundled along flatter roads. Sprinters have it harder these days.
I know the roads were dangerous and wouldn’t take anything away from the risks involved with that and ensuring that the riders stay safe, but the riders seem to more and more complain about being cold, I thought with all the modern clothing technology that we are being sold, cold riders should be a thing of the past.
For all the advances in clothing, and it’s come on a lot to the point where it’s changed more than any groupset or frame improvements (a decade ago I needed >36 items of clothing, ie 2 shoes, 2 socks 2 overshoes etc, for a deep winter ride, now 12), there doesn’t seem to be much to do when it is wet and cold and the riders still want to be able to race, ie not wear flapping rain gear that keeps people dry when hiking or fishing etc, plus all of this happened so quickly yesterday, even if this was in the rainbags many would not have time to fetch it as they were initially racing hard. I’d like to say “warm, dry, fast: pick two” but even that’s hard to achieve.
The worst conditions for cycling are when it’s wet and near-freezing as everyone gets soaked and chilled.
The spectacle of riders pleading with commissaires to halt the race leaves a slightly sour taste, while IR seems to share Jalabert’s feeing that the race would have been better continuing rather than leaving riders shivering by the roadside for forty minutes or so.
Are sights such as Hinault emerging through the snow to win L-B-L forever in the past now? If so, a pity.
Better if they could have continued but with the road blockages and the ice on the road it wasn’t possible in the moment. All riders have “rain bags” in the team cars behind but this time more was needed for the stop while everyone was damp from the rain.
It was chaotic but in the moment not sure there was much more to do be done better given the way the sport works outdoors, how riders were in several different places at once etc.
Excellent pic of the race going by Benoit’s epicerie
It’s a nice pic from Châtel-Montagne…. but the shop is fake. It’s just a mural to make it look like it is still there.
Chatêl-Montagne is an extreme example of French rural population loss with a population once over 2000 now reduced to a paltry 321. Given that much of the population is elderly (45,9% 60 and over) that trend seems certain to continue.
Interesting that google streetview in August 21 shows numerous cyclists and road closures for an Ironman triathlon. At least they had, unlike yesterday, fine weather.