Paris - Nice 2023: GC Favourites

[Underneath article was written before the start of Paris-Nice and has not been updated]

The two rivals first met each other last year in the Tirreno-Adriatico. Pogacar not only won two stages, he also finished almost 2 minutes ahead of Vingegaard on GC. Yet, the Dane bounced back in July and he won the Tour de France almost 3 minutes ahead of Pogacar. On the other hand, the Slovene celebrated three stage wins and Vingegaard himself ‘just’ two.

The two are equally matched, also given their 2023 start of the season. Pogacar won three out of five stages and the GC of the Ruta del Sol, Vingegaard won all three stages and the GC of O Gran Camiño.

So Paris-Nice is a highly-anticipated showdown with the two best GC riders in the world. But, obviously, there are other riders eyeing up the yellow jersey as well.

The first time gaps are expected to open up in the team time trial on the third day of action. Vingegaard is likely to do well in a squad with former World Champion time trialing Rohan Dennis and reigning World Champion Tobias Foss. The following stage is also interesting, as the finish is uphill on La Loge des Gardes.

The GC action is sure to catch fire on the penultimate day. The route on the run-up to the finale is not very challenging, but the finish climb is something else entirely. The Col de la Couillole is a 15.7 kilometres toil with an average gradient of 7.1%.

On numerous occasions, Paris-Nice’s fight for the GC was the epitome of ‘every second counts’. Very often, it came down to the dying metres of the final stage – so, small wonder the organisation didn’t change the menu on the last day of action.

Featuring five climbs, stage 8 is a short and explosive race in the mountains above Nice before a downhill finish onto the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. Similar routes have produced breathtaking races in recent years. If not for super domestique Wout van Aert, Simon Yates would have taken the yellow jersey from Primoz Roglic’ shoulders in last year’s final stage.

Favourites Paris-Nice 2023

**** Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar
*** Simon Yates, David Gaudu, Daniel Felipe Martínez
** Romain Bardet, Jack Haig, Gino Mäder, Neilson Powless
* Ion Izagirre, Maximilian Schachmann, Wout Poels, Tim Wellens