The first vital stage race of the season, Paris-Nice, rolls out on Sunday promising a heavyweight match-up between the highest two in final 12 months’s Tour de France: Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar.
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Neither has ridden the Race to the Sun earlier than, preferring its Italian counterpart the Tirreno-Adriatico, which begins on Monday.
Last 12 months Pogacar, already the two-time Tour de France champion, received comfortably. Vingegaard was second, virtually two minutes behind.
Yet in July, the Dane deposed Pogacar because the king of the Tour de France.
This is the primary time they’ve met in a stage race since then and is prone to be the final time they meet it a multi-day occasion till this 12 months’s Tour.
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While riders have typically handled Paris-Nice as spring coaching, at 24, Pogacar, a Slovenian who rides for UAE, has an opportunity to reassert himself towards the 26-year-old Dane Vingegaard, who rides for the all-conquering Jumbo-Visma crew.
“Pogacar will want to show that he is the winner,” mentioned Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme.
Primoz Roglic received final 12 months’s Paris-Nice
Paris-Nice has been run since 2002 by ASO which additionally owns the Tour de France.
“The strength of Paris-Nice is that it projects right back to July. It is really a mini Tour de France with summit finishes, a time trial but also flat stages with wind,” Prudhomme added.
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Both Pogacar and Vingegaard have made dominant begins to the season in low-key races in Spain.
Pogacar has received 5 instances in six days of racing. Vingegaard received all three phases and, inevitably, the general classification on the Gran Camino.
“They look like they’re flying,” mentioned Frenchman Romain Bardet, one in every of a robust group of potential rivals that additionally consists of Briton Simon Yates, Daniel Martinez of Colombia, Frenchman David Gaudu and two-time winner German Max Schachmann.
Slovenian Primoz Roglic, who beat Yates by 29 seconds to win final 12 months, has been omitted by Jumbo.
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The 2019 winner Egan Bernal, who suffered an virtually deadly crash final 12 months in his native Colombia, is out with a knee damage.
The high two within the earlier Tour de France haven’t met in Paris-Nice since 1994 when Spaniard Miguel Indurain and Swiss Tony Rominger entered. Rominger received and Indurain was thirty fifth earlier than occurring to defend his Tour title later within the 12 months.
Eight phases
The eight-stage race begins with a 165km circuit simply west of Paris earlier than heading south.
If provides possibilities for the sprinters, and the sector is loaded with elite speedsters, together with Arnaud Demare, Bryan Coquard, Tim Merlier, Arnaud De Lie, Sam Bennett and Mads Pedersen.
The route additionally consists of demanding climbs, together with the best peak within the historical past of the occasion, the Col de Couillole, at 1,678m, on the penultimate stage.
There can also be novelty. The crew time trial returns after a 30-year absence however in a brand new format.
Instead of taking the time of every crew on the fourth or fifth rider to cross the road, the clock will probably be stopped on the passage of the primary arrived.
The thought is that groups will splinter as they ship their quickest males, or main contenders, up the highway close to the end.
The thought, mentioned race director Francois Lemarchand, “is to avoid seeing the team that wins the time trial place several riders at the head of the general classification” in a race that’s typically determined by seconds.
By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse
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