The final day in Nice, often a lively stage. The yellow jersey looks wedged on Matteo Jorgenson’s broad shoulders so we’ll see who can win the stage.
The finish is later than usual.
Paris-Ice, Part 6: a strong break jumped away on the first climb to Aspremont and the surprise was that Michael Storer, 13th overall at 3m55s was allowed to get in there and he had VIP help from team mate Julian Alaphilippe.
Behind Visma-LAB seemed content to cap the lead and didn’t need to bring it back. UAE and Red Bull tried to chase too and even Nils Politt’s full rictus effort could not eat into the lead. Third overall in the morning, Mattias Skjelmose crashed and fell hard and was left prone in the road with a blanket to cover him while more specialist medical care arrived but fortunately it seems nothing was broken apart from his hopes of a podium finish.
As rain turned to sleet on the climb to Auron Cofidis’s Clément Izquierdo made the first attack, seemingly knowing he was going to get dropped so he might as well get a mention for the day, it’s what’s called une attaque boomerang in French. This prompted Aussie Michael Storer and Mauro Schmid of an Aussie team to move to the front while EF pair Georg Steinhauser and Neilson Powless were close but first the American cracked, then the German. Storer hardly needed to attack and rode away for the stage win, hoisting himself up to 4th overall. It’s a big win for Storer after his pair of Vuelta stages from 2021 and important for Tudor too as they chase wildcard invitations; all the signs point to the UCI agreeing to let ASO invite an extra team to the Tour but in case not it’s now impossible to leave out Tudor.
If Storer won the day, Mads Pedersen finishing in tenth place is also deserving of a mention, finishing ahead of Matteo Jorgenson, João Almeida and plenty of others, and he didn’t go in the break either, he just out-climbed them to Auron.
The Route: 119km and into the hills behind Nice. They leave for a neutral procession up the Var valley, a handy warm-up and then there’s hardly bit of flat road all stage. It’s all on the typical snaking roads of the region which constantly twist and turn their way up valleys and down gorges on roads where it’s hard for a team to control. The Col de Porte is “new”, as in a change to the format and a good choice for a climb, it has a wilder feel although it won’t be on TV coming early.
The 90 minutes are more familiar. With 55km to go, the race climbs out of the Paillon valley for the climb to Peille – the Col de St Pancrace to locals – and this is the hardest climb of the day. It’s listed as 6.6km at 6.8%, so worthy of a small Alpine pass on these stats alone but it’s the irregularity that makes it hard work with early sections of 9% and even 12% as it winds up a narrow road with so many bends that a rider need only get 50 metres’ lead to be out of sight. It’s where the selection seems to happen every year. It levels out further up and once over the top comes a twisting descent to La Turbie and Eze with the short rise to the Col – 6-4-2 seconds time bonus – and then it’s down the Moyenne Corniche to the coast.
The difference this year is the race doesn’t climb up all the way again to the Col d’Eze. Instead it’s “just” the wall-like Chemin du Vinaigrier with over a kilometre at 13% before picking up the main road at the Col des Quatre Chemins and then dropping down the corniche cliff road back to Nice.
The Finish: a small rise around the 1km to go point, then a flat finish on the Promenade des Anglais.
The Contenders: the way Mads Pedersen has been riding… but even if he can make it over the Peille climb the Vinaigrier sting too much. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-LAB) is riding strong but it’s open to plenty of others.
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Jorgenson, Almeida |
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Foss, Sheffield, Champoussin, Van Wilder, Romeo, Castrillo, Paret-Peintre |
Weather: sunny, 12°C inland and 16°C in town.
TV: Tirreno-Adriatico is up first with a sprint finish due around 3.45pm CET.
Then Paris-Nice has 90 minutes of live with the finish forecast for 5.10pm CET.
Postcard from Peille
The Peille climb has been a fixture of Paris-Nice for over a decade now, displacing the once traditional Col d’Eze time trial on the final day. For good reason as it’s been a thriller, the cliffhanger on the corniche. Plus time trials sink TV ratings.
The quality is partly thanks to Alberto Contador. The stage in the current format, more or less, was first used in 2014 and finished in a big group sprint. But the following year Contador launched a raid and ever since the climb to Peille has been the place to move.
However the final stage’s finale is now familiar and riders know how to race it to the last metre. This knowledge means the final day isn’t as surprising as it once was, to the peloton and viewers alike. Indeed what chance a reduced bunch sprint again today? Reduced at least because the organisers have added the Vinaigrier climb.
This hypothesis of familiarity leading to formatted racing can apply to any race with the same course every time. See the Omloop and especially the Ronde van Vlaanderen, but it applies to other races held on the same roads every year, the Flèche Wallonne is the exemplar where it is always raced in the same way, nobody has won from the breakaway since 2003. There’s a self-fulfilling aspect where the peloton learns how to race a circuit, applies it again and soon there’s a consensus on the winning method being passed down from one generation to the next.
Could it be time for a new course in the hills, a shake-up? There are plenty of other good roads behind Nice, even better to show them off too.