Despite the promised CIRC-us on Monday there’s some sport to be had on the roads and we’re due a stressful sprint finish. Alexander Kristoff and John Degenkolb are the big names but there’s a nervous duo of Arnaud Démare and Nacer Bouhanni each looking for their first win.
A 6.7km prologue that’s not for prologue specialists. It’ll establish an early pecking order and prise apart the riders in a race that’s expected to be close all week
Tirreno-Adriatico’s got the star factor with the “fantastic four” of Alberto Contador, Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana leading the charge in Italy. The focus on four is obvious but the field is deeper with Joaquim Rodriguez, Rigoberto Uran and Thibaut Pinot who have all have stood on the podium of a grand tour.
All this makes Paris-Nice look secondary, two races equal in UCI label alone. Yet everyone wins as we get to see a rare clash in Italy before riders reconvene for the Tour de France while Paris-Nice offers a sweep of riders the chance to finally win the major stage race they need. If Froome or Contador rode to Nice the result could be just another line on an already long palmarès but for the likes of Tejay van Garderen, Andrew Talansky and Wilco Kelderman the yellow jersey in Nice is an important conquest.
ASO have announced the route for the Paris-Nice. After last year’s hilly route without time trials the 2015 race looks traditional with an opening prologue, a “summit finish” and the conclusive Col d’Eze time trial.
Carlos Betancur surges past Rui Costa to win Stage 6 in Fayence. The margin of victory created time gaps and first place brought a ten second bonus too. If he’d won the previous stage too, that was via a late attack on the descent to Rive-de-Gier that was a clever but not dominant move. Instead it was on the Mur de Fayence that Betancur took the yellow jersey and demonstrated he was the best in the race. This was the moment the race was won.
The final stage of the race but no procession, this is a punch stage via the Col d’Eze before the finish in Nice.
In the Tour de France the cliché goes that “you can see Paris” from the top of the last mountain. Riders might not be able to see Nice but they can smell the sea among the perfumed roads around Mougins. A hilly day awaits but beware the flat looking section on the profile as it’s a heavy circuit that could prove selective.
The Queen Stage of the race? Perhaps but as Christian Prudhomme’s revolutionary fervour rages royalist pretensions are out and instead of a regal mountaintop finish we get a short wall of a climb. But there’s nothing egalitarian about this finish, it’s highly selective and could well crown the winner.
A short stage that head directly south. They’ll cross the finish line once before tackling a second category climb and a descent back to town. If the route looks lumpy, the gradients are soft and the sprinters have their last chance to grab a stage win.
A stage of two halves with a flat start followed by a hilly finish as the race changes terrain abruptly with a finish on roads that read more like a wine menu than a bike race. After some skirmishes and sprints now the race will change with some sharp climbing.