The peloton will embark on the penultimate stage 20 on Saturday, which will mark the final mountainous road race of the Tour de France before the finale stage 21 individual time trial on Sunday.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) all but sealed his overall lead at the Tour de France with his fourth stage victory on Isola 2000, and now all he needs to do is finish comfortably among his rivals on stage 20 and stage 21 to secure the yellow jersey for the second time in his career.
It is far from an easy stage, however. Stage 20's 132.8km from Nice to Col de la Couillole offers four ascents and 4,600m of elevation gain, forming the final mountain stage of the Tour de France.
The Paris-Nice regulars will be racing over familiar terrain on stage 20, but that won’t make things any easier if the contest for the minor places in the overall classification is still raging or if a breakaway heads up the road.
The yellow jersey might be spoken for, along with podium places for runner-up Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and third-placed Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), but there is still some room to maneuver among the fourth through tenth overall in the GC standings. That race is led by João Almeida, Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates teammate, who is running fourth on GC at more than 15 minutes back.
That being said, Pogačar revealed that he is confident in his lead and so UAE Team Emirates could allow a breakaway to succeed on the roads to Col de la Couillole.
"I'm super happy, it's quite a margin and tomorrow I must say - I can just enjoy the stage and we let the breakaway go and maybe enjoy the roads where we were training before the Tour," he said after his victory on Isola 2000.
After heading North from Nice, the battle could commence as early as the climb to the Col de Braus (19km at 6.6%), 25 kilometres into the stage. It is the only category 2 ascent of the stage, as the remaining three climbs are category 1.
There will then be no respite on the climbs of the eastern side of Col de Turini (20.7km at 5.7%), Col de la Colmiane (7.5km at 7.1%) and finally, Col de la Couillole, the final ascent extending for 15.7km at an average gradient of 7.1%.
The famous Nice to Pra-Loup stage in 1975, when Bernard Thévenet removed the yellow jersey from the shoulders of Eddy Merckx, included an ascent of the Col de la Couillole, the polka-dot jersey of King of the Mountains Lucien Van Impe leading over its summit.
In the 2017 edition, Richie Porte was the winner as this summit hosted a finish for the first time.
Paris-Nice returned to the Col de la Couillole for a second summit finish in 2023, when Tadej Pogačar came out on top before going on to win the overall in Nice the following day.
Stage 20 information
Stage 20 Sprints
- Intermediate sprint, km 87.8
Stage 20 Mountains
- Col de Braus (19km at 6.6%), cat. 2, km 24.7
- Col de Turini (20.7km at 5.7%), cat. 1, km 59.8
- Col de la Colmiane (7.5km at 7.1%), cat. 1, km 95.9
- Col de la Couillole (15.7km at 7.1%), cat. 1, km 132.8
