Professional cycling can be an intriguing mix of power, tactics and opportunities. All too often, though, it comes down to who is the strongest, either as an individual or as a team. Occasionally, however, even the biggest of favourites don’t quite get things right, and the race slips out of their fingers. There can be a number of reasons for that and the 82nd edition of Paris-Nice has shown quite a selection of them from riders we might have suspected to be above that kind of thing.
Before the start, everyone expected Primož Roglič to play his part and he did, just not in the category we were led to believe from previous years. Despite it being the first race of his 2024 campaign, everyone was convinced he would be ready to lead his new team Bora-Hansgrohe to a victory or, at the very least, a podium place. Winner two years ago and dominant in 2021 until a crash on the final stage saw him drop to 15th, Roglič knows how to ride the race.
