They call Paris-Nice the Race to the Sun, but stage 4 of this year’s race provided plenty of reminders of how harsh the conditions can be in France in March, too, as riders squelched and shivered their way to the finish line at Uchon on one of the toughest days of 2026 so far.
Crashes combined with atrocious weather conditions to see multiple high-profile abandons, from race leader Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) to Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Dan Hoole (Decathlon-CGA CMM) and no less than 9 other early exits. Add in the three non-starters, amongst them another crash victim from earlier on in the race, Eddie Dunbar (Pinarello-Q36.5) and 15 riders are out by the half-way point of Paris-Nice.
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“I finished with nothing left in the legs, we were all dead, I think. Today will remain in the head for a long time,” Lenny Martínez (Bahrain Victorious), already on the back foot when he was dropped in an early echelon, told CyclingProNet at the summit of stage 4, “and now we’ve got to ride back down the climb to the buses.”
“It was really, really hard from the gun,” Dani Martínez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), the rider who ran Vingegaard the closest at the summit but who barely could react when the Dane attacked with a kilometre to go, told CyclingProNet. “The team did a fantastic job, I was finally up there almost by inertia, and I was completely out of energy.”
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