While the Classics specialists ply their trade over in Belgium, the Grand Tour contenders are due to get their engines primed for the build-up to the Tour de France in Paris-Nice, racing 1,245 kilometres from Achères to Nice.
In his third straight year of early-season disruptions, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) is making a previously unplanned start in the Race to the Sun, having had to drop the UAE Tour from his calendar after a training crash and illness.
That makes the Danish rider the prime contender to win Paris-Nice – even if it is his first competition of the season.
While his Tour de France rival Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) prefers to race Strade Bianche and the likes of Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Pogačar’s teammate Isaac del Toro have opted for Tirreno-Adriatico, there is still a sizable list of riders lined up to challenge Vingegaard. Among these top contenders are several notable names.
The eight-day Paris-Nice route starts with an Ardennes Classics-style stage to Carrières-sous-Poissy outside of Paris, contains a 24-kilometre team time trial as a prelude to the TTT in the Tour de France in July, and three uphill finishes before an unconventional finish around Nice that completely avoids the Col d’Eze and Col des Quatre Chemins that featured in 2024 and 2025.
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)
Before Opening Weekend, Cyclingnews‘ news editor Patrick Fletcher suggested that Vingegaard’s team have had a nightmare start to 2026, having not won until Matthew Brennan’s victory in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. However, compared to the past two years, Visma-Lease a Bike’s luck has been far better in 2026.
Consider that Vingegaard crashed in Itzulia in 2024 and suffered serious injuries that kept him out for three months before the Tour de France. In 2025, he crashed in Paris-Nice and suffered a bad concussion while in the lead of the race – an incident that again kept him out of competition for almost three months. He still finished second in the Tour…
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