Paris-Nice queen stage cut to 47km due to heavy snow

The planned summit finish at Auron will not feature on stage 7 of Paris-Nice due to the heavy snow forecast to fall on the mountain overnight. 

Race organiser ASO confirmed on Friday evening that the stage will be shortened by 19km, with the finish now set to take place at Isola Village. “The latest forecasts make an arrival in the Auron resort inconceivable, with the rain-snow line estimated to be around 1,100 metres altitude,” read a statement from ASO.

The summit finish at Auron was positioned at 1,600m above sea level, whereas the new finale at Isola Village will be at an altitude of 868m. The revised stage will now be 120km in length, with race director Yannick Talabardon acknowledging that it not likely to be a day for the general classification contenders.

“The forecast predicted heavy snow overnight and right up until the time of the finish,” Talabardon told L’Équipe. “15cm of snow are expected in Auron, so it was difficult. They also forecast a lot of rain, and the rain-snow line is 1,100m above sea level.”

The decision was taken in consultation with local authorities and commissaires as well as representatives from the CPA and the AIGCP. It was decided to finish at Isola Village, originally the site of the intermediate sprint, rather than risk trying to finish closer to the rain-snow line.

“Isola-Village is at the foot of the climb to Isola 2000, so it won’t be a summit finish even if the profile might make you think that it was,” Talabardon said.

“It’s more a long false flat. We’re going from a stage dedicated to the climbers to a stage that’s more for the baroudeurs or maybe even the sprinters.” 

On Saturday morning, the announcement came that the stage will be reduced to 47km in length. The riders will travel to the new start location at 12pm and begin racing at 1:45pm, 47km from the new finish line at Isola

“We will depart in a convoy at 12:00 PM to head to a new starting point 47 km from the finish line,” read the offfical statement. “We will start the race again at 1:45 PM from this location for the final 47 km of the race. Finish line at Isola.”

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) holds a commanding lead of 3:22 over Daniel Martínez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) atop the overall standings with two stages left.