With the one-day hitters opening their accounts a fortnight ago at Opening Weekend, Paris-Nice offers the equivalent opportunity for the Grand Tour men when it starts this Sunday (3 March).
Most notably, Tour de France hopefuls Remco Evenepoel Soudal Quick-Step) and Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) will butt heads for the first time. How much can be read into whoever emerges on top from this particular skirmish is limited this far out from July.
But, as an eight-stage WorldTour race complete with a healthy complement of proper mountains and a hilly team time trial, the ‘Race to the Sun’ represents a key marker along the bumpy road to La Grande Boucle.
The duo are unlikely to have it all their own way, of course. Riders such as João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and new Visma-Lease a Bike signing Matteo Jorgenson are all capable of taking the fight to them.
Thee sprinters, too, will look to create their own narrative, but they will have limited opportunity: seven out of eight stages are classified as hilly or mountainous by organiser ASO. The parcours gets grippy from the go, with stage one – a loop based on Les Mureaux just outside Paris – featuring four cat-three climbs. Only the second stage to Montargis is classified as flat, and all the fast finishers will have their eyes on this one.
Then comes the team test – a hilly one to boot. After that, climbing is the order of the day all the way to the finish. Stage four, to Mont Brouilly in the Beaujolais region, looks particularly brutal with six cat-two climbs and a cat-one, including a tough little 3km ascent to the finish. Things calm down over the next stages before battering the riders again on the final day with three cat-two and two cat-one climbs on the way to the Nice finish.
Paris-Nice 2024 key information
Date: Sunday, 3 March - Sunday, 10 March
Location: France
Start: 12:00 GMT
End: 16:00 GMT
2023 winner: Tadej Pogačar
TV: Discovery+/Eurosport
Paris-Nice 2024 stages
There’s an unwritten rule or, at the very least an expectation, that team time trials are broadly flat. After all, when riding on the rivet, keeping seven riders in tight formation is challenge enough.
Start throwing any proper climbing in there though, and it becomes a whole different ball game. But that’s exactly what ASO’s route planners have done, sending riders over the 3km climb of Côte de Jussy halfway through the 27km course.
This is preceded by a slightly smaller climb and another over the final kilometre. Removed from a TTT context they would be nothing to write home about, but with seven riders with different strengths and weaknesses all determined to go as fast as possible, they have the potential to wreak havoc.
Paris-Nice 2024 riders to watch
Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
*****
Evenepoel ranks as the odds-on favourite for the race, having started the season with a very promising performance in the Volta ao Algarve, where he won the time trial and took the overall honours.
Primož Roglič
Bora-Hansgrohe
*****
Paris-Nice will be the 34-year-old’s first race with his new team. He would almost certainly prefer an individual TT over the team test, but there is enough tough riding across the rest of the week to allow him to do what he does best.
Mads Pedersen
Lidl-Trek
*****
Fastman Pedersen has had his best ever start to the season, topping GC on two short stage races. Paris-Nice represents a step up but the Dane is on fine form and ready to take advantage of the one nailed-on bunch sprint on stage two.
Rigoberto Uran
EF Education-EasyPost
***
The 37-year-old Colombian finished last season without a win. However, ‘Rigo’ can still turn a mean pedal, and with retirement looming following the Olympics, he still has goals and will be hoping to go out with a flourish.
Carlos Rodriguez
Ineos Grenadiers
***
Part of Ineos’s new generation of Grand Tour hopefuls, Rodríguez should be counted as a GC favourite at Paris-Nice. A mountain goat by nature and a world-class one at that, he will be pleased to see the race does not scrimp on the climbing.
Arnaud Démare
Arkéa-B&B Hotels
***
After being left out of FDJ’s Tour squad despite multiple early summer wins last year, the Frenchman promptly moved to Arkéa. Moving teams often leads to levelling up – look out for a reinvigorated Démare at Paris-Nice.
Strade Bianche 2024 start list
Alpecin-Deceuninck
GROVES Kaden
KRAGH ANDERSEN Søren
BALLERSTEDT Maurice
DILLIER Silvan
OSBORNE Jason
PLANCKAERT Edward
GHYS Robbe
Arkéa-B&B Hotels
DÉMARE Arnaud
CHAMPOUSSIN Clément
SCOTSON Miles
GUERNALEC Thibault
MCLAY Daniel
OWSIAN Łukasz
Astana Qazaqstan
SCARONI Christian
BATTISTELLA Samuele
CHARMIG Anthon
LUTSENKO Alexey
KANTER Max
SELIG Rüdiger
TEJADA Harold
Bahrain-Victorious
BILBAO Pello
BUITRAGO Santiago
HAIG Jack
WRIGHT Fred
GRADEK Kamil
RAJOVIĆ Dušan
SÜTTERLIN Jasha
Bora-Hansgrohe
ROGLIČ Primož
VLASOV Aleksandr
JUNGELS Bob
SOBRERO Matteo
DENZ Nico
HALLER Marco
VAN POPPEL Danny
Cofidis
COQUARD Bryan
GOUGEARD Alexis
RENARD Alexis
THOMAS Benjamin
IZAGIRRE Ion
IZAGIRRE Gorka
PEREZ Anthony
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
GALL Felix
ARMIRAIL Bruno
BENNETT Sam
GODON Dorian
NAESEN Oliver
PARET-PEINTRE Aurélien
DE BONDT Dries
dsm-firmenich PostNL
JAKOBSEN Fabio
EEKHOFF Nils
VAN DEN BERG Julius
ANDRESEN Tobias Lund
LEEMREIZE Gijs
ROOSEN Timo
TUSVELD Martijn
EF Education-EasyPost
BISSEGGER Stefan
VAN DEN BERG Marijn
VALGREN Michael
URÁN Rigoberto
DOULL Owain
ROOTKIN-GRAY Jack
RUTSCH Jonas
Groupama-FDJ
GAUDU David
PITHIE Laurence
BYSTRØM Sven Erik
GENIETS Kevin
RUSSO Clément
WATSON Samuel
PACHER Quentin
Ineos Grenadiers
DE PLUS Laurens
TARLING Joshua
FRAILE Omar
RODRÍGUEZ Carlos
CASTROVIEJO Jonathan
ROWE Luke
TURNER Ben
Intermarché-Wanty
VAN SINTMAARTENSDIJK Roel
THIJSSEN Gerben
CALMEJANE Lilian
PETIT Adrien
ZIMMERMANN Georg
DE POOTER Dries
MIHKELS Madis
Israel-Premier Tech
ACKERMANN Pascal
FUGLSANG Jakob
HOFSTETTER Hugo
BOIVIN Guillaume
HOULE Hugo
SCHWARZMANN Michael
ZABEL Rick
Jayco AlUla
REINDERS Elmar
MATTHEWS Michael
HARPER Chris
PLAPP Luke
GROENEWEGEN Dylan
DURBRIDGE Luke
MEZGEC Luka
Lidl-Trek
SKJELMOSE Mattias
PEDERSEN Mads
MOLLEMA Bauke
KIRSCH Alex
STUYVEN Jasper
DECLERCQ Tim
GIBBONS Ryan
Lotto Dstny
DE LIE Arnaud
CAMPENAERTS Victor
DE BUYST Jasper
BEULLENS Cedric
VAN MOER Brent
EENKHOORN Pascal
PAASSCHENS Mathijs
Movistar
CAVAGNA Rémi
NORSGAARD Mathias
BARTA Will
LAZKANO Oier
ARANBURU Alex
GUERREIRO Ruben
JACOBS Johan
Soudal Quick-Step
EVENEPOEL Remco
VAN WILDER Ilan
VERVAEKE Louis
LAMPAERT Yves
CATTANEO Mattia
MOSCON Gianni
PEDERSEN Casper
TotalEnergies
BURGAUDEAU Mathieu
CRAS Steff
VAN GESTEL Dries
LATOUR Pierre
TURGIS Anthony
DUJARDIN Sandy
JEGAT Jordan
Tudor Pro Cycling
TRENTIN Matteo
DE KLEIJN Arvid
STORER Michael
KLUCKERS Arthur
PLUIMERS Rick
VOISARD Yannis
ZIJLAARD Maikel
UAE Team Emirates
ALMEIDA João
MCNULTY Brandon
FISHER-BLACK Finn
VINE Jay
GROßSCHARTNER Felix
POLITT Nils
SOLER Marc
Visma-Lease a Bike
JORGENSON Matteo
KOOIJ Olav
KELDERMAN Wilco
AFFINI Edoardo
BOUWMAN Koen
VAN DIJKE Mick
VAN DIJKE Tim
