Male Team 05 - 12 Mar
Paris-Nice
1197 Kilometers 8 Stages
The race will be broadcast on Eurosport and GCN. Keep in mind that the former will probably offer stages two to six (Monday 6th – Friday 10th) in a more reduced live format, due to Tirreno-Adriatico also being held this week. The world feed will start around 15.00 CET, except for the final weekend, which will see the images kick off around 13.00.
There will be 10-6-4″ up for grabs at the finish of all seven road stages, plus 6-4-2″ at the intermediate sprints, one per stage.
Abarca Sports has five overall victories in Paris-Nice, obtained by Miguel Indurain (1989, 1990), Jeff Bernard (1992), Luis León Sánchez (2009) and Marc Soler (2018).
Following a really encouraging start to the 2023 season, with his first two pro victories in Oman and a good performance at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Matteo Jorgenson will lead the Movistar Team lineup at Paris-Nice, also featuring Iván García Cortina. Both have shone in the ‘Course to the Sun’ in the past, and will surely look forward to seeking their chances again here.
The 81st edition of the race won’t be short of anything in its route. A lumpy, tricky opening day around La Verrière (Sunday 5th) will be followed by the usual crosswind chance towards Fontainebleau (Monday 6th), then a 32km TTT, with an uphill finish, in Dampierre-en-Burly (Tuesday 7th), with a distinctive character as it will be the first rider across the line to set the time, and plenty of mid- and high mountains.
There will be two mountain-top finishes: La Loge des Gardes (Wednesday 8th), no less than a Cat-1 ascent over 6.7km at 7.1%; and the already-known Col de La Couillole, Saturday 11th, over 16km at 7%, probably the hardest climb of the season so far. There will be two consecutive stages exceeding 200km on Thursday 9th and Friday 10th -watch out for the tough slopes around La Colle-sur-Loup- and the always exciting finale on Sunday 12th around Nice, over five rated ascents and the final climb to the Col d’Eze through its hardest side (6km at 7.6%).