'Not worthy of a WorldTour race' - Vingegaard unhappy with roads in Paris-Nice opener

Jonas Vingegaard safely negotiated the opening stage of Paris-Nice, but he expressed concern at the state of the road on the final descent on the run-in to the finish at Carrières-sous-Poissy.

On his first race day of 2026, Vingegaard rolled home in the peloton on a stage won in a bunch sprint by Luke Lamperti (EF Education-EasyPost).

“It was stressful, I would say,” Vingegaard told TV2 afterwards. “There was a lot of stress out there, and luckily, we made it through safely out there. There were a lot of crashes today. I just hope everyone is okay. It was my first race day this year, and I’m thinking a little bit that I hope that all race days aren’t going to be like this, because then it would be terrible.”

Vingegaard was initially due to start his season at the UAE Tour in February, but he withdrew from the race after suffering a training crash and illness in the build-up to the race. The Visma | Lease a Bike rider later added Paris-Nice to his schedule as a replacement.

“Maybe I’m getting old,” Vingegaard joked when it was suggested such stress was to be expected on his first outing of the year. “I don’t know. But I talked to some people out there, and they said that fortunately not all races have been like this. I hope the rest of the week won’t be like that either.”

In particular, Vingegaard pointed to the condition of the road on the Côte de Chanteloup-les-Vignes, which was the key feature on the local lap in the finale of the stage.

“I don’t think the route was very good today,” Vingegaard told Feltet. “I don’t think it was worthy of a WorldTour race. Bad roads, constantly right and left, potholes. Especially the last descent, which we rode three times, wasn’t good enough for a WorldTour race.”

The finale saw a number of nervous crashes, and Vingegaard was one of many held up behind Lenny Martinez’s fall in the final kilometre, though without any consequence for his general classification hopes.

Vingegaard returns to Paris-Nice after crashing out of last year’s race and sustaining a concussion that ruined his spring schedule. This season, Vingegaard is set to ride the Volta a Catalunya and make his Giro d’Italia debut before squaring off with Tadej Pogacar once more at the Tour de France.

He lines out as the favourite for Paris-Nice, though he will face stiff opposition from Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), Oscar Onley (Ineos) and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) across the week. The first clear rendezvous for the GC men will come in the stage 3 team time trial to Pouilly-sur-Loire, though Monday’s flat run to Montargis is not without potential pitfalls.