The 2024 edition of Paris-Nice looks set to be decided in a tough mountainous final weekend next year, but a fraught, hilly opening leg, the risk of cross-winds on stage 2 and a mid-race TTT will also help decide who succeeds Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) as the winner of France’s second biggest stage race.
The unveiling of the 82nd edition of Paris-Nice on Tuesday confirmed the repeat of the 2023 TTT on stage 3, this time in the city of Auxerre, but with the same unusual format of the time being set by the first rider across the line.
A summit finish at the cat. 2 climb of Mont Brouilly, last seen in Paris-Nice in a time trial won by Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) follows 24 hours later.
The key final weekend starts once again with a cat.1 summit finish in the Alpes-Maritimes in Auron. Then, stage 8’s mountainous circuit around Nice may look familiar, but it has a crucial innovation: a short but very steep Col-des-Quatre-Chemins just 9km from the finish.
Starting in the Yvelines Départment near Paris for the 15th time in its history in the town of Les Mureaux, stage 1 is peppered with cat.3 ascents and then finishes on a tough uphill ramp, meaning the GC riders will have to be on the ball and at the front of the pack right from the word go.
Stage 2 then continues with another of the traditional Paris-Nice early challenges, with its flat, exposed run from Thoiry to Montargis. As ever on this terrain, if there are crosswinds, no matter how gentle, then more than a few potential challengers could find themselves in the wrong section of a shattered peloton and out of the GC fight.
The tension won’t let up during the following two days, starting with the repeat of the 2023 TTT. Measuring in at 5km shorter than last March’s collective race against the clock when there was less than half a minute’s difference between the top five overall on the results sheet, in an event often decided by seconds, the differences on the hilly 26.9km run in Auxerre next March will nonetheless be critical again.
The rugged terrain on Stage 4, perhaps hardened by the winter weather which often predominates in the hills of central France in early March, represents another important challenge, comprising less than five cat.2 ascents – and one cat.1 – culminating in a double ascent of Mont. Brouilly.
Once again, differences between the very top favourites will likely be minimal on the stage most likely set to weed out the weaker challengers without creating…
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