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.