In his debut season for Visma-Lease a Bike, American Matteo Jorgenson won one of the biggest one week races in cycling, outmatching Remco Evenepoel across the cold and rainy week.
The 2024 edition of Paris-Nice did not have a perfect climb for a high w/kg performance but it featured numerous hills and shallower climbs. Santiago Buitrago won up Mont Brouilly (2.98 km, 7.79%) on Stage 4, after attacking the GC group with Luke Plapp on an earlier climb. The Colombian did 7.00 ᵉW/Kg for 7:27 min and lost only 2 seconds to the GC group, where Remco Evenepoel did 6.85 ᵉW/Kg for 7:25 min, after sprinting hard in the last section and losing third to Mattias Skjelmose.
Buitrago crashed on Stage 6 and again later on Stage 8, having to abandon the race. Without a strong climbing team or hard mountains, Evenepoel could not drop his rivals on Stage 6 and 7. The Belgian on hilly stage 6 parcours lost time to Skjelmose, Jorgenson and McNulty after they escaped from the GC group, counter attacking him before a shallow descent to the finish.
Stage 7 featured the shallow La Madone d’Utelle climb (15.08 km, 5.86%). Aleksandr Vlasov with a late attack won with 5.76 ᵉW/Kg for 35:45 min. Evenepoel and Jorgenson with 5.67 ᵉW/Kg finished eight seconds later. As the gradients were shallow and there was not a strong team capable of pulling hard the whole climb, the ᵉW/Kg were low. But with many accelerations, it was enough to drop McNulty in the final section.
Stage 8 as usual was going to be a very high intensity and hilly stage with a finish in Nice.
After Lidl-Trek tried to make the stage harder for their leader Skjelmose, Evenepoel attacked multiple times on Côte de Peille (6.5 km, 6.9%) as he needed to gain time on McNulty and Jorgenson in the GC. The third attempt from the Belgian was successful, as only Stage 7 winner Vlasov and virtual GC leader Jorgenson were able to follow.
Thanks to irregular pace, the ᵉW/Kg were low. Evenepoel did 6.28 ᵉW/Kg for 16:50 min. Jorgenson and Vlasov in his draft did 6.17 ᵉW/Kg. McNulty lost nine seconds with 6.13 ᵉW/Kg, while the Roglič and Skjelmose group did 6.08 ᵉW/Kg, losing 15 seconds.
After Col d’Eze (1.6 km, 9.1%) and a long descent, the trio had cracked the GC leader McNulty and created a big lead. Evenepoel’s last chance to drop Jorgenson was on Col des Quatre Chemins (3.82 km, 8.40%). The draft was still important, and the American remained glued to his wheel whilst Evenepoel set a steady hard pace. The difference was too close between them for any gaps, and Evenepoel did 6.48 ᵉW/Kg for 11 minutes. Jorgenson in the draft saved 0.18 ᵉW/Kg, while Vlasov was dropped and lost 28 seconds with 6.08 ᵉW/Kg.
Similar to the 2023 Volta a Catalunya, Evenepoel was gifted the last stage by a Visma - Lease a bike rider who had secured the GC win. In 2023 it was Primož Roglič who now in his first race for his new team finished 10th in the GC, while Jorgenson after leaving Movistar won his first WorldTour race. The horrible weather played a major role in this year's Paris-Nice, with constant rain and cold temperatures impacting the riders - some more than others.
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