Visma-Lease a Bike wins Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico

If the first European WorldTour stage races of the season proved anything, it’s that the two strongest teams are even stronger. On Sunday Visma-Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard brought home the Tirreno-Adriatico Neptune’s trident trophy, and the team’s new American Matteo Jorgenson claimed Paris-Nice on the very last stage. UAE-Emirates stood riders on both podiums, claimed the Paris-Nice team time trial and its team prize, and saw their new Mexican sensation Isaac del Toro come fourth in the Race of the Two Seas.

Vingegaard dominated Italy’s Tirreno-Adriatico, with consecutive long-range mountain attack victories on Stages 5 and 6. UAE-Emirates’ Spaniard Juan Ayuso was runner-up and Jay Hindley rounded out the podium. The podium order was the same as Thursday and Friday’s stage finish order.

Even though Sunday’s conclusion would be the sprinters’ final dance, at the start of the day fourth through sixth place on GC were five seconds apart. The intermediate sprint time bonuses were sopped up by the breakaway and Jonathan Milan earned his brace of bunch sprint successes.

2024 Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 7
1) Jonathan Milan (Italy/Lidl-Trek) 3:15:51
2) Alexander Kristoff (Norway/Uno-X Mobility) s.t.
3) Davide Cimolai (Italy/Movistar) s.t.

2024 Tirreno-Adriatico Final GC
1) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Visma-Lease a Bike) 26:22:23
2) Juan Ayuso (Spain/UAE-Emirates) +1:24
3) Jai Hindley (Australia/Bora-Hansgrohe) +1:52
4) Isaac del Toro (Mexico/UAE-Emirates) +2:20
5) Ben O’Connor (Australia/Decathlon-AG2R) +2:24

Over in France, Hindley’s new teammate Primoz Roglič didn’t have as great of a stage race result in his debut with a new team as Matteo Jorgenson did for Visma-Lease a Bike. Eighth last year, the American ripped the yellow jersey from compatriot and friend Brandon McNulty (UAE-Emirates) on the final day in the mountains around Nice, attacking with Remco Evenepoel and Aleksandr Vlasov on the fourth of five categorized climbs and then resisting the Belgian on Col des Quatre-Chemins. Jorgenson and McNulty were part of a momentous late breakaway trio on Stage 6, fourth place Matthias Skjelmose also part of the raid.

The first 2024 meeting of Remco Evenepoel and Roglič resulted in the Belgian finishing runner-up and the Slovenian placing tenth, his lowest stage race result since 2019.

Egan…