'You can ruin your season here' - Riders call for cancellation of shortened Paris-Nice stage

On Friday evening, ASO confirmed that the summit finish had been cut from the route due to the anticipated 15cm of snow forecast to fall overnight on Auron. On Saturday morning, the decision was taken to cut the stage to just 47km due to heavy rain on the Côte d’Azur. 

The riders signed on as normal in Nice before travelling by bus to a location 47km from the new finish line in Isola-Village, with the start slated for 13.45 local time.

Matteo Trentin (Tudor) was among the riders to question the viability of the revised stage, pointing out that the decision needed to take into consideration the logistics of the entire caravan and not just the safety along the shortened route.

“Sometimes I think we just need to understand that when the conditions are not there, you cannot have the magic baguette to change the weather,” Trentin told Daniel Benson in Nice, adding that he didn’t believe the 47km stage would go ahead.

“I think not. I mean, there are too many ifs and too many things. I understand the organisation’s point of view for putting on the race, they have people paying them. But on the other hand, you also need to put on something that resembles a bike race. You cannot do a half gran fondo to a certain point, that’s not a race.”

Trentin expressed sympathy for the organisation but pointed out that the peloton had already raced in extreme conditions on stage 4 to Uchon, a day marked by crosswinds and heavy rain. In his view, the biggest problem with Saturday’s shortened stage was not necessarily one of safety during the race but rather the logistics around the event in the narrow valley road leading towards Isola 2000.

“For us, it’s no problem to race, but it’s just logistically super difficult to do. For the teams with the buses, imagine we get in and it’s snowing, where do you go with the bus? You go reverse all the way down?” Trentin said.

“We have transport to bring around and also the organisation has trucks and stuff, so it has to be safe for these guys as well. It’s not only us, it’s a whole circus moving. Sometimes you need to just give up and say, ‘Ok, the weather is like this, I’m sorry guys.’”

As things stand, the riders will race for 47km to Isola-Village, with the team buses travelling behind the peloton and parking at a spot a kilometre from the finish.

“What do we do then? We stop in Isola and there’s no buses and no tents and you’re sitting there like an idiot? This is also not safe,” Trentin said. “You need to understand the whole of it, and it’s not easy if you’re not a part of cycling. It’s understandable that people don’t have the whole picture around, but it’s more than just the bike race, especially when you go into the mountains. If it was on the flat, it’s different, but we’re going into a super narrow valley that actually leads to Col de la Bonette.”

Trentin’s view was echoed by others in the peloton, including Luca Van Boven (Lotto Intermarché), who is one of the CPA rider representatives at Paris-Nice.

“I don’t think there will be any racing,” Van Boven told Sporza. “It doesn’t look very good; there is snow just before Isola.

“You can ruin your season here. When we rode to the start, we saw a few accidents because it is far too slippery. If they use common sense, it is better not to race today. In such a short stage, everyone is motivated. It is going to be extremely dangerous. It’s better to cancel the stage.”

Race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) also questioned the viability of racing as far Isola in these conditions, though he suggested a compromise might yet be reached.

“We really want to race today, but we don't think we can make it to the finish. It is snowing there; that would be too dangerous,” Vingegaard said. “We still think that if they can make a race where the finish is 10 or 20km earlier, then it would be possible. We don’t want to put anyone in danger, and I think it would be too dangerous to go to the finish.

“If the ASO really wants to go to the finish, I would say ‘no.’ But if they are willing to adapt and say that we can stop before there is snow, then we can do it.” 

Speaking to CyclingPro.net in Nice, however, Thierry Gouvenou of ASO indicated that the stage would go all the way to Isola-Village.

“We’re going to do the last 47km which take place on a nice wide road on a rising false flat, without any descents. It’s going to be a shortened stage but a very safe one,” Gouvenou of said. “It’s clear that the riders would rather be in their hotel rooms. We’re still going to have a stage. It’s true that the finish line is white, it snowed a bit this morning, but the weather is clearing up and we should be able to finish in good conditions.”