A good four months before the start of the Tour de France, last year's winner Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and his rival Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates).
All eyes on Pogacar & Vingegaard
When the traditional week-long Paris-Nice race starts in La Verrière on Sunday, all eyes will be on the two cycling stars. From a German perspective, Maximilian Schachmann, the overall winner of 2020 and 2021, wants to continue working on his return to the world elite after a year to forget with many illnesses.
The big favourites for the overall victory, however, are the stars of the scene, who have recently presented themselves in impressive early form: the Dane Vingegaard (26) won three stages and the overall classification at the Spanish tour O Gran Camino, and Pogacar (24) did the same at the Ruta del Sol in Andalusia. The Slovenian already has five wins this season. "That was good preparation for Paris-Nice. I have a great desire to win. My form is good," said Vingegaard, who dethroned Pogacar as Tour champion last year.
Premiere for Pogacar at Paris-Nice
Pogacar wants to put that right this year, starting with Paris-Nice, where he will be on the start line for the first time in his career. "The start to the season was really good, for me personally, but also for the team with many victories. I'm looking forward to my debut at Paris-Nice," said Pogacar, who will even forgo his title defence at the Strade Bianche gravel race on Saturday in order to prepare optimally.
It is quite possible that he will have to switch into attack mode right away at Paris-Nice. A team time trial is already scheduled for the third day, in which Vingegaard's Jumbo-Visma team could make up a few seconds. After that, however, two difficult mountain stages await. The long-distance race ends on 12 March with the eighth stage in Nice. Schachmann has already triumphed there twice. After starting the season in Australia, the Berlin-born rider recently completed a training camp in Tenerife.
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