Tradition returned to professional road cycling this week as Paris-Nice kicked off on the outskirts of Paris.
First raced in 1933, former race winners include luminaries such as Sean Kelly (seven times), Jacques Anquetil (five times), Eddy Merckx, Joop Zoetemelk and Laurent Jalabert (three each), and Raymond Poulidor, Miguel Indurain, Fred de Bruyne, and Tony Rominger (two each). In more recent times, Alexandre Vinokourov and Alberto Contador have each won twice.
You can make your own judgement on their rightful places in cycling history.
Paris-Nice is a wonderful race over eight stages, with varying terrain as it winds southwards through the middle of France.
Tom Boonen won the second stage in typical style, continuing the strong form he has shown since the Tour of Qatar. Boonen’s great ability to get into the important breaks (he very rarely misses an opportunity to attack) means he is always a danger man when conditions are difficult and opponents are hurting.
However, most eyes are already on the general classification.
Bradley Wiggins (Sky) has stamped his intentions on the race early, and now holds the leader’s jersey after stage two. Wiggins’ ability to climb and time trial will make him difficult to beat, especially after an unexpected split in the peloton during a windy stage two left 2011 winner Tony Martin languishing 2:56 behind.
Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) sits a mere six seconds behind Wiggins, with Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) also within striking distance.
All three of those teams have to ability to put the pain hammer down on Sky, so expect a high workload for Wiggins’ team-mates Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas as the team defends the lead over the next few days.
It was a disheartening day for Tony Martin, Richie Porte, the Schleck brothers and stage one winner Gustav Larsson, all of whom missed the critical split in the peloton and lost two and half minutes to the leaders.
Simon Gerrans (GreenEDGE) also missed the split and trails Wiggins by 2:54, which realistically rules him out of overall contention.
However, this creates opportunities for a stage win over the next few days, as Gerrans will no longer be watched as closely as if he was a General Classification threat.
Although the course avoids the high mountains (it’s still ski season in the Alps) Paris-Nice still presents a significant challenge, with Category two and three climbs scattered liberally throughout most stages.
Stage five has three Category one efforts, and should sort out most of the General Classification contenders, but the race probably won’t be decided until the final stage: a 9.6km burn up the Category one Col d’Eze, outside Nice.
GreenEDGE needs a stage win – that much is obvious – for confidence. It would also prove that the team is a serious competitor to the more established teams.
The plan will be for Gerrans to attack opportunistically while the teams chasing overall victory are busy marking each other over the hillier sections.
Stage three is 194km of rolling terrain finishing in a category three climb, which should suit a punchy finisher like Valverde or Gerrans. Fingers crossed.
There is plenty of action to come before we reach that hilly time trial on Sunday, and if it doesn’t provide an exciting conclusion to the race, I’ll eat my beret.
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