173 kilometres between Nice and Auron were planned for Saturday on stage 7 of Paris-Nice 2024. However, this will not materialise as snow and sub-zero temperatures are forecast for the weekend in the mountains. As the organiser A.S.O. announced on Thursday, the stage will only be 104 kilometres long and will now end on the summit of the Madone d'Utelle and not in Auron as originally planned.
No Col de la Colmaine for Paris-Nice 2024
A new stage profile has now been published. The first 89 kilometres of stage 7 remain the same, but after that the peloton does not ride over the Col de la Colmaine (1st category), but turns directly into the final mountain of the day.
This means that the section will be less difficult. According to A.S.O., the stage will now have 2000 metres of elevation gain, compared to the original 3750 metres. The original final climb to Auron has an average gradient of 7.2 per cent over 7.3 kilometres. The new final climb to Madon d'Utelle is what is considered a roller hill in the cycling jagon: 15.3 kilometres with an average gradient of 5.7 per cent.
Last mountain finish at the Madone d'Utelle 2016
In 2016, a mountain finish at Paris-Nice already took place there. It was won by Ilnur Zakarin ahead of Geraint Thomas and Alberto Contador - the first 14 riders reached the finish within a minute of each other. Eight years ago, the peloton already had to tackle five 2nd category and one 1st category mountain classifications before the final climb, which made it topographically more challenging than this year's arrival at the Madone d'Utelle.
