The first major stage race of the year starts on Sunday. This edition sees new stage race contenders like Tom Dumoulin and Geraint Thomas up against old timers like Richie Porte and Alberto Contador over a mixed route with the old and the new, like Mont Ventoux and gravel roads.
The route for the 2016 Paris-Nice (6-13 March) is out. It lets us look through to the other side of winter to one of the first major stage races of the year. There’s a blend of old and new with familiar places alongside novelty like the introduction of gravel roads for one stage.
Already there’s a strong list of contenders with Richie Porte, Chris Froome, Alberto Contador, Fabio Aru and more. Here’s a look at the route and more.
Richie Porte rides up the Col d’Eze. If he’d distanced his rivals on the Col de la Croix du Chaubouret midweek, his margin of victory was much greater in Sunday’s Col d’Eze time trial.
With the fantastic four and more heading to Italy this was the chance for a new name to emerge, for a young starlet to shine on the Côte d’Azur. Only we ended up with a repeat winner aged over 30.
The opening stages rhymed with siesta only for the race to hit the TV jackpot yesterday with a Frenchman winning the stage and taking the yellow jersey after a very eventful stage. Can Tony Gallopin win Paris-Nice? It’ll be close. Richie Porte is in the prime position to profit but there are four riders within six seconds of him.
Note the early finish of the stage today, see the TV listings below for more.
Look closely at the image above and Richie Porte’s marking Michał Kwiatkowski. With just one second separating Michał Kwiatkowski and Richie Porte this will be a hard day for Team Sky and Etixx-Quickstep because as close as the gap between the two is, there are 20 riders within 90 seconds on GC. Can they control the race?
It’ll be hard as today is a a mini-world championships, a stage that many in the peloton have been looking forward to all week, including a significant proportion of the bunch who live near Nice and Monaco and use these roads for training and know the descents.
Sprint or breakaway? Today’s stage is a scenic ride and a gourmet’s delight with the finish in Rasteau, famous for its wines. The race has come alive with Michał Kwiatkowski leading Richie Porte by just one second. Today’s likely to see others in action before a nervous weekend spent sprinting for time bonuses and the Col d’Eze decider.
Even if you don’t care for the race, read on because there’s a short tribute to Paul de Vivie, the man who perfected and promoted the derailleur and issued the Seven Commandments for a Cyclist.
It’s all change with a summit finish to reshape the GC. A series of climbs will soften up the peloton before the long climb up Mont Pilat.
Another sprint stage but with a tricky finish to contend with, a sharp climb just 500m from the line will upset the heavier sprinters. This widens the list of potential winners and offers a more lively finish even if the best is again saved for last.
It had all been looking so good for Tirreno-Adriatico. The “fantastic four” of Alberto Contador, Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana were supposed to clash for the first time together in a stage race only for Froome to fall ill, while we were promised a sprint royale between Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish but the German’s got a virus. Still even in the absence of Froome and Kittel the Italian stage race has a stellar startlist that trumps Paris-Nice by a variety of metrics, whether sheer anticipation or the cold logic of UCI points. Why?
Another flat stage across unremarkable countryside that’ll end in a bunch sprint? We said this in 2013 when the Tour de France took a similar route to Saint-Amand-Montrond only for teams to shred the race in crosswinds and provide one of the most thrilling flat stages of the Tour in recent memory. Sadly for those hoping a repeat episode the forecast says it won’t be so windy.