Stage 4 to Uchon saw the peloton split in crosswinds at the start. A crash in the front group inside the final 50km saw half the Red Bull team ride on unhindered with Jonas Vingegaard along for the ride. This was the moment the race was won.
The two opening stages went to the sprinters with surprise wins for Luke Lamperti and Max Kanter with both triumphs were built on a strong lead-out and an early drop-off.
Stage 3 was the team time trial. Paris-Nice has had the rule twist of taking the time on the first rider across the line since 2023 and apparently lwith this year’s Barcelona Tour de France start in mind all along. The win went to Ineos who were two seconds faster than Lidl-Trek but the yellow jersey was for Juan Ayuso because he’d four second time bonus on the previous stage. Visma-LAB were close but UAE were not.
It was all looking like a classic Paris-Nice, Ayuso in the lead with seconds in it. And now came the bad weather stage as a cold front swept across France for Stage 4.
Look at the the picture above. Almost everyone is out of the saddle as Stage 3 starts. A three-quarters tailwind would whip the bunch along and cause splits from the start.
The decisive moment later happened on an innocuous portion of road. The descent of the Col du Rebout was over by the team the race reached the D3 out of Saint-Léger-sous-Beuvray. A reader even visited the location and remarked it was an ordinary bit of tarmac.
Whatever happened wasn’t seen. The TV motorbike camera was well ahead and filming backwards, there was no overhead shot as the helicopter was grounded due to bad weather. But Juan Ayuso crashed, taking down Brandon McNulty and others too.
It left Vingegaard with a free ride to the finish as Nico Denz and Tim and Mick van Dijcke rode on to tow their team leader Dani Martinez to a high overall position. Any unwritten rule about waiting for the yellow jersey was long gone but wouldn’t have mattered as Juan Ayuso was out of the race. His injury looked horrible in the moment but fortunately it was only hip trauma and he’ll be back for his next race as planned.
Cycling often has Snakes and Ladders moments but this was different. This was more a scene of a cartoon or a Buster Keaton movie where the protagonist jumps aboard a moving train to evade chasers, and then as it crosses a large viaduct with the pursuers closing in on a handcar only for the bridge to fall away to thwart them for good. You can make your own luck but it’s rarely this decisive in sport.
Another unseen moment was Georg Steinhauser slipping away from the chasers but this gave him over 40 seconds on the rest and would lift him up to third place overall and the podium in Nice.
Vingegaard got a free ride to the line and his greatest worry seemed to be clothing. He’d been dressed in layers of kit to see him through the early part of the stage only the relentless pace left him with no chance to stop and remove some of it. But the layering worked as Dani Martinez seemed frozen to the bone and unable to respond on the climb to the Signal d’Uchon. After he’d changed into the yellow jersey Vingegaard had minutes on most of the rivals who’d stayed in the race.
Vingegaard doubled up the next day. This stage win was much less complicated. He set his team to work to chase down the break and the last rider left, Victor Campenaerts, did a hail Mary turn on the hardest climb of the day and Vingegaard attacked and was clear for the win. This is probably going to be his route to the Giro d’Italia win as rather than waiting until late to move, he can shake off rivals mid-way on a summit finish and pace himself to the finish faster than the rest.
With the sun back out Harold Tejada took the win in Apt. If Dorian Godon was frustrated to win the sprint for second, he’d get lucky the next day. Snow fell on the planned route to Auron and so the decision was taken to finish in Isola village down in the valley below. On the day the route was shortened further to just 47km and Godon won the sprint.
The final stage saw Dani Martinez crash on the descent of the Col de Porte and begin a long chase with team mates. Normally losing a minute here would be ruinous on the final stage of Paris-Nice but he had help from team mates and a cushion to manage and by the time gaps were so wide that he did not have to panic.
Visma-LAB tried to set up Vingegaard for the stage win again but this time Lenny Martinez stuck to his back wheel and later said it was hard but he had something in reserve, he suffered more on the flat to hold the Dane’s wheel. Martinez won the stage and Vingegaard the race.
The Verdict
For Vingegaard a successful week, for everyone else an atypical one. The pleasure of Paris-Nice often from the tiny margins and competition to the end. Not this time, this was a comprehensive triumph for Vingegaard. A margin of 4m23s is the fourth largest ever, and the three editions with wider gaps were all in the 1930s. Vingegaard won the points and mountains competitions as well, a feat only achieved by Eddy Merckx in 1970 and Sean Kelly in 1983, 1984 and 1986. Fate played an oversized role here: Stage 4’s bad weather and one crash defined the race.
The imponderable is whether Juan Ayuso would have challenged Vingegaard the win. Probably as the form was there, the team strong and the intent to go for the win too but first stay upright. We won’t know of course and if the question can’t be answered it is still a lament as seeing the two in duel decided by seconds should have been the race played out. For all the ease of Vingegaard’s win he can’t count on having it as easy again this season. His next test is Catalunya where he’ll face a denser field.
As well as the high profile exits, plenty of others left the race along the way. Bahrain finished with two riders. Cofidis with one in Ion Izagirre who finished 7th overall. But perhaps the struggle was worse for Picnic-PostNL which finished the week with only €200 of prize money but along the way got a CHF 500 fine from the commissaires so a negative outcome, at least in cash terms.
The week showed the role of team work: it made the difference for lead-outs in the first two stages; obviously for the team time trial which could have been won by Decathlon if they had an extra rider to accompany Daan Hoole; Red Bull’s numbers and the strength of the Van Dijke brothers got Dani Martinez on the podium and set up the decisive win to Vingegaard; it placed Harold Tejada back in the bunch after a puncture so he could attack and win; it set up Dorian Godon’s sprint; all this and more. Including the decision by Ineos not to give Kévin Vauquelin’s more support when dropped early on Stage 4 probably costing him the podium.
Milan-Sanremo is rushing up. We’re all meteorologists this week to see there’s a tailwind in the finish because this plays a big role in whether an attack on the Cipressa works. Right now six different models predict a tailwind. If Mother Nature obliges we’ll see if UAE can nail the team work soon.
Many thanks for the entertaining and enlightening daily pieces. If only we could have them for every single race… I certainly won’t forget this edition of P-N anytime soon. Some likeable stage winners, heroic riding in the face of adversity, and a cautious hope that we might have more of a contest at this year’s TdF. However, I have to admit that I will mainly remember it due to the chaos and drama (and slapstick) of Stage 4.