The final stage and for once there’s not all to play for as Jonas Vingegaard leads by over three minutes. But the stage win and the other podium places are available and all on a new route with a novel finish.
Stage 7 Review: a win for Dorian Godon in an abbreviated stage. Snowfall saw the finish moved to Isola village and then heavy rain saw the start moved too and the stage was reduced to 47km. It happened despite several teams voting no to race.
Visma-LAB helped keep a lid on things all stage and in the finale Ineos supplied a good lead out and Godon got his second stage win with Ineos after the team time trial. He also collected the points jersey.
Godon said on TV that the Ineos team at Paris-Nice is their Tour de France team. In July there’s an extra rider and the addition is likely to be Thymen Arensman; while one rider this week will probably be swapped out to make room for Filippo Ganna.
The Route: 2,780m of vertical gain in 145km. The first 80km are the same in previous years with the ride up the Var valley, the Col de la Porte and then the descent to L’Escarène. But instead of heading east for the climb to Peille this time it’s west for some “new” roads.
The Col de Châteauneuf comes next, 6.6% says the profile but it’s a twisty backroad that rewards attacks as it’s easy to get out of sight. Right at the start there’s a long 14% section to reward an attack.
The hardest climb comes last, Linguador in the road book or “Death Road” to some locals, fortunately on account of its asphyxiating slopes rather than anything worse. It’s a narrow road with an irregular slope.
There’s also the surprise climb of the intermediate sprint with 7km to go, the route turns off the valley floor to take a twisty side road that climbs for over a kilometre at 4-5%.
The Finish: flat but with a sweeping bend that’s almost a U-turn with 350m to go, it’s wide and is based off a roundabout but means the finish isn’t in sight until late.
The Contenders: Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) can win but has to attack on a climb and go solo. Easier said than done but his show showed it can work earlier in the week. It’s just harder to pull off on this stage.
Kévin Vauquelin (Ineos) has two goals today, the stage and finding 19 seconds on Georg Steinhauser in order to get on the podium. Both goals can be combined.
Lenny Martinez (Bahrain) might prefer an uphill finish but he’s actually quick in a small group. The same for Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep)
UAE have Marc Soler and Igor Arrieta, the former is 8th overall and so has less space. Movistar’s Jefferson Cepeda is an outside pick. Likewise Tudor’s Mathys Rondel.
Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) would be a pick but had a hard crash yesterday which left him with a bruised leg so it’s not clear if he’ll start today.
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Vauquelin, Vingegaard |
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L Martinez, Paret-Peintre, Arrieta |
Weather: sunshine but cool, 13°C and windy at times.
TV: 60 minutes of live from 3.30pm CET onwards and the finish is due around 4.30pm CET.
Postcard from Nice
Paris-Nice finishes in Nice today. There have been finishes on the Quai des Etats-Unis and the Promenade des Anglais and today has a new finish outside the Allianz Riviera stadium which sits on the edge of the city. Today’s finish is because of local elections in France today and to ease access to voting stations.
However 28 of the 84 editions of the race, one third, haven’t actually finished in Nice. From 1969 to 1995 the race always finished on the Col d’Eze which technically isn’t Nice. The race has also finished there in 2012 and 2013. The Coronavirus obliged the race to halt a day early at the La Colmiane ski resort in 2020, while in 2021 the eighth and final stage finished in Levens in the hills behind Nice by design because of the pandemic too.
In 1959 the race finished… in Rome. It was an 11 day race and after reaching Nice at the end of the seventh stage the best riders were invited to race on to Rome. The event had three general classifications, one to Nice, one from Nice to Rome and then an overall of these for Paris to Rome. This extended edition was won by Jean Graczyk. However the riders and the UCI found it too long and the experience was not repeated.
Never heard of the 1959 anecdote and it’s pure gold!
^___^
Former winner Soler is currently sixth in GC but your point stands, even more so as Lenny besides attacking will want to keep his top 5 placing.
I’ve been often left wondering by Pa-Ni having these great final stages with very short TV coverage which actually prevented spectators to watch the key moves, although of course you could still enjoy the consequences, i.e. the frantic chase up between groups to the line.
On a different note, today is the last chance for Pa-Ni to turn upside down or at least bring to a draw the match with Ti-Ad, as the latter today just has a final bunch sprint stage: until now this edition of the Italian race is “leading” with a considerable advantage, although Pa-Ni was quite fine, too! Yet, in addition to that couple of MvdP shows, yesterday in Camerino was so emotional thanks to the context that it’s hard to get on par with that.
Ti-Ad has been closer and, stagewise, a bit more unpredictable than Pa-Ni, but I’m really glad Vingo seems to have found his stride, and that alone has lifted Pa-Ni to another level this year. I’m not his biggest fan, but over the past 2–3 years, I’ve warmed to him quite a bit, in step with my growing, and accelerating, dislike for anything UAE.
Thanks for the fantastic coverage of Pa-Ni, Mr. Inrng! I discovered this blog just a few months ago and have been quietly following along, but it’s already become my go-to must-read for anything cycling—at least for this Swiss enthusiast.
This might be a tricky question, but how is it funded? Do you accept donations?
Thanks for asking but the costs are low. It would cost more in time and admin to collect money to ask people to pay for the web hosting/bandwidth. Free, simple and open works for now.
That leaves open the question, what’s your day job, and with whom? 🙂
That is indeed a great anecdote about the 1959 edition. It’s a bummer that the riders found the race too long. An 11-day race seems like a great length, at least to watch.
Vauquelin will be Ineos’ GC guy in the Tour, I assume?
I suspect English team; Scottish GC guy…..
I totally forgot Onley had been at this race…time to re-up on my Aricept.
And Carlos Rodriguez too. Onley and Vauquelin are more like one week specialists who excel in 5-15 minute efforts but obviously have every incentive to become grand tour contenders.
Even after Onley’s 4th place in The Tour last year? Do we need a few more 3-week results until be begin to direct the conversation towards ‘contender’ and not a ‘flash in the pan’ moment?
I don’t think he’s a flash in the pan (picked as a neo-pro to watch here before) but there’s obviously a big leap needed if he’s to trouble Pogačar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel for a podium place in the Tour whereas in a week long stage race he can have the punch to win time bonuses on shorter climbs and try to surpass Vingegaard, a bit like he was doing already in the Croatia Tour and made a name for himself back then.
An obvious pick for Ineos for July but just repeating last summer’s result is a tough ask given the competition.