Paris-Nice, "The Race to the Sun," is frequently a weeklong journey from dismal weather conditions in northern France to sunnier skies in the south. The race lived up to its nickname all in one day, however, on a stage 4 that finished in a bit of sunshine but only after sleet and hail forced a temporary neutralization of racing.
Meanwhile, in Italy, the Tirreno-Adriatico peloton fared little better, avoiding neutralization but not avoiding several crashes amid heavy rainfall.
Wednesday's fourth stage of Paris-Nice rolled out from Vichy with ominous weather on the horizon, although the skies did not truly open up until there were some 50 km to go for the lead riders in the breakaway, a little over two minutes ahead of the peloton. Conditions quickly deteriorated to the point that organizers decided to stop the race entirely, at least for a time, giving riders about 15 minutes off the bike.
Fortunately, the inclement weather began to clear, and before long, riding was resumed, but still under neutralization. After the riders covered some of undulating terrain on the way to the summit finish at La Loge des Gardes, organizers briefly halted affairs once more to allow for a racing restart with the correct time gaps between seven lead riders, two chasers from the initial break, and then the bunch.
With some 28 km to go, everything kicked off again in earnest, and it did so under increasingly pleasant conditions. As the peloton ramped up the speed for the Cat. 1 finish, the breakaway was caught. By the time Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) shot off the front solo in the final 3 km, the sun was peeking through.
João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) would surge past Vingegaard to take the stage 4 win in the final few hundred meters, with Vingegaard settling for taking over the race lead from his Visma teammate Matteo Jorgenson, who finished six seconds behind Almeida.
Sun at the finish and the race leadership aside, Vingegaard was not pleased, and he made his opinion known after the finish.
"We should never have ridden this final," the two-time Tour de France winner said. "It was freezing and no one in the peloton felt any heat. After the restart I didn't get warm anymore and even now I still feel hypothermic."
Crashes hit Tirreno-Adriatico amid heavy rain
Of course, the French stage race does not have a monopoly on inflicting early March misery on riders, as Tirreno-Adriatico often throws challenges of its own at the peloton. Wednesday's stage 3 was no exception, with riders spending hours racing in the rain.
There were multiple crashes on the slick roads, with stage 2 winner Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and others going down in one particular pileup inside the final 25 km. Although the finale took place in slightly less wet conditions, the rain was still falling and the roads were still soaked when Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) sprinted to victory in Colfiorito.
All told, it was a classic day of splitscreen racing at Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, which so often draw big names to France and Italy to ride in the rain, or worse.
Did we do a good job with this story?
