The 2024 edition of Paris-Nice looks set to be decided in a tough mountainous final weekend next year, but a fraught, hilly opening leg, the risk of cross-winds on stage 2 and a mid-race TTT will also help decide who succeeds Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) as the winner of France’s second biggest stage race.
The unveiling of the 82nd edition of Paris-Nice on Tuesday confirmed the repeat of the 2023 TTT on stage 3, this time in the city of Auxerre, but with the same unusual format of the time being set by the first rider across the line.
A summit finish at the cat. 2 climb of Mont Brouilly, last seen in Paris-Nice in a time trial won by Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) follows 24 hours later.
The key final weekend starts once again with a cat.1 summit finish in the Alpes-Maritimes in Auron. Then, stage 8’s mountainous circuit around Nice may look familiar, but it has a crucial innovation: a short but very steep Col-des-Quatre-Chemins just 9km from the finish.
Starting in the Yvelines Départment near Paris for the 15th time in its history in the town of Les Mureaux, stage 1 is peppered with cat.3 ascents and then finishes on a tough uphill ramp, meaning the GC riders will have to be on the ball and at the front of the pack right from the word go.
Stage 2 then continues with another of the traditional Paris-Nice early challenges, with its flat, exposed run from Thoiry to Montargis. As ever on this terrain, if there are crosswinds, no matter how gentle, then more than a few potential challengers could find themselves in the wrong section of a shattered peloton and out of the GC fight.
The tension won't let up during the following two days, starting with the repeat of the 2023 TTT. Measuring in at 5km shorter than last March’s collective race against the clock when there was less than half a minute’s difference between the top five overall on the results sheet, in an event often decided by seconds, the differences on the hilly 26.9km run in Auxerre next March will nonetheless be critical again.
The rugged terrain on Stage 4, perhaps hardened by the winter weather which often predominates in the hills of central France in early March, represents another important challenge, comprising less than five cat.2 ascents – and one cat.1 – culminating in a double ascent of Mont. Brouilly.
Once again, differences between the very top favourites will likely be minimal on the stage most likely set to weed out the weaker challengers without creating definitive winning margins. But in an event whose outcome is often poised on a knife edge like Paris-Nice the gaps, however, small, all matter.
While the next two more straightforward stages taking the race even further south will likely favour the breakaways, stage 7’s unprecedented cat.1 summit finish at Auron is another story altogether. On paper much less difficult than stage 7’s mammoth ascent of the 15km Col de la Couillole in 2023, Auron’s tough average gradients of 7.2% will nonetheless surely leave a major mark on the 2024 race’s overall rankings.
The inclusion of the 7km climb in the Alpine foothills will also mean a summit finish features the second-last stage of Paris-Nice for a ninth consecutive edition of the race, in a sequence now stretching back to 2016.
Whoever is leading by this point, though, will surely face yet more challenges on the last day’s trek through the mountains overlooking the finish in Nice. Three cat.2 ascents and a cat.1 climb of Cote de Peille are just the opening difficulties on a short but ferociously difficult final day. This culminates with a long, difficult drag up to the summit at the Col d’Eze with segments at 13%, then a short, much punchier and steeper climb of Col des Quatre-Chemins preceding a fast drop back to the coastline and Nice’s Promenade des Anglais.
Last year’s exceptionally thrilling edition saw Pogačar take three stages on route to victory ahead of David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). And while the Slovenian is not expected to return to defend his title in 2024, race director Christan Prudhomme reminded his audience in Tuesday’s press conference why Paris-Nice always has an enduring attraction.
“We didn’t have the final podium in Paris-Nice in the same order that we had in the Tour de France, but Paris-Nice this March made it clear we knew we’d have a big fight on our hands in July,” Prudhomme said.
And with the Tour finishing in Nice next summer, those early omens of what might happen four months later over many of the same roads will be even stronger than usual.
Paris-Nice 2024: the stages
- Sunday March 3: Stage 1: Les Mureaux - Les Mureaux 157.7km
- Monday March 4: Stage 2: Thoiry - Montargis: 177.6km
- Tuesday March 5: Stage 3: Auxerre-Auxerre TTT 26.9km
- Wednesday March 6: Stage 4: Chalon-sur-Saone - Mont Brouilly 183km
- Thursday March 7: Stage 5: Saint-Sauveur-de-Montagut - Sisteron 193.5km
- Friday March 8: Stage 6: Sisteron - La-Colle-sur-Loup 198.2km
- Saturday March 9: Stage 7: Nice - Auron 173.2km
- Sunday March 10: Stage 8: Nice - Nice 109.8km
