Wednesday 14 November 2007 at 23h22

While Paris-Nice was one of the only cycling races left which start in or near Paris, that will come to an end next year as well ... Paris-Nice will not start from Parijs or from a city close to Paris: next year you'll have to go 125 kilometers south to see the Paris-Nice prologue.

The last few years (in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 and still this year) Paris-Nice's prologue found its host city in the same place as its organiser A.S.O.: Issy-les-Moulineaux. With a time trial over a little bit under 5 kilometers in the streets of this modern city just south Paris that was the perfect occasion for Parisians to see the prologue of this race which announces the start of the French cycling season!

Next year the prologue will be 9,3 kilometers long and will take place in the streets of Amilly in the Loiret on Sunday 9 March 2008. The next day the second stage will also start in Amilly to finally arrive in Nice on Sunday 16 March 2008.

In 2002 and this year (2007) it was quite easy for me to see this prologue in Issy-les-Moulineaux, but in 2008 that might be a bit more complicated!

David Millar, Alberto Contador, a Caisse d Epargne car
A few pictures of the Paris-Nice 2007 prologue in Issy-les-Moulineaux: top left we see David Millar, the winner of the prologue, on the right Pieter Weening with Alberto Contador waiting behind him for his start of the prologue and to finally win Paris-Nice 2007 and a Caisse d'Epargne car in front of a Conseil Général des Hauts-de-Seine sign ... this Conseil Général will no longer be asked to facilitate Paris-Nice's start next year!

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The cycling races Paris > ... which don't start in Paris

With this announcement by A.S.O. of the Race to the sun starting from Amilly, Paris-Nice has now become part of the list of races for which the name makes you think they start from Paris, but which actually do not start in the French capital at all ...

On 14 October for example I took my bike early in the morning to do 2x 50 kilometers to be at the Paris-Tours start in Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines, but the same goes for cycling races such as Paris-Bourges which actually starts in Gien or Paris-Roubaix which starts in Compiègne at the north of Paris.

Paris-Nice winner wins the Tour de France as well?

If you take a look at the results of the last two years you might think that when you know Paris-Nice's winner you'll also know who'll win the Tour de France ...
In 2007 Alberto Contador won Paris-Nice with only a few seconds and in July he also won the Tour de France 2007 ... in 2006 Floyd Landis was the quickest in Paris-Nice and a few months later he also won the Tour de France 2006 ... mmmmmh wait a minute, that's not true ... Oscar Pereiro Sio won that Tour (check out his interview after the Tour de France 2008 presentation and a few days after he finally got the yellow jersey for the Tour 2006 on his team's blog).

So maybe we'll have some first indications in March 2008 on who might be a potential Tour de France 2008 winner ... however, with such an original list of stages I think we might not know it at all before the last days of the Tour 2008 itself!

door Thomas Vergouwen
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8 comments | 2864 views

this publication is published in: Paris-Nice | Cycling general (except Tour de France)

Comments

There are 8 comments!
  1. Mais bon il reste pas mal de choses a Paris peut etre pas le départ de Paris Nice !!! Nous quelque fois on est jaloux dans nos provinces il ne se passe jamais rien !!! snif snif Si il y a quelque chose que je ne rate jamais et qui passe vers chez moi c est le Rallye Monté Carlo Historique qui ne se fait qu avec des voitures de collection type Alpine Renault Lancia Stratos ou Porsche etc ..Que du bonheur !! ciao byebye a+

    | Liserois | Thursday 15 November 2007 om 17h56

  2. je te souhaites un joyeux anniversaire, c est Nathalie La grande fan delAURENT JALABERT ? J ai beaucoup de plaisir a naviguer sur ton blog et a regarder toutes tes jolies photos.j espere un beau cadeau pour toi aujourdh ui.un bisou quand meme de ma part

    | vaucaire nathalie | Friday 16 November 2007 om 22h32

  3. Aniversaire !!!!! Hum ca c est chouette ,alors ......champagne !!!!! And the Liserois can play english !!! Happy bithday my friend . ciao byebye a+

    | Liserois | Saturday 17 November 2007 om 12h04

  4. Bonjour bonjour !

    Tout d'abord merci pour vos félicitations ! C'était effectivement mon anniversaire hier et ça fait bien évidemment plaisir de voir qu'il y a des lecteurs de mon blog qui y pensent :-).

    Sinon Liserois, tu as bien raison qu'il reste quand même pas mal de choses à Paris et je ne devais donc pas me plaindre ... mais j'étais quand même un peu déçu d'apprendre que Paris > Nice ne commencera pas avec un petit prologue dans les rues d'Issy-les-Moulineaux ...

    | Thomas Vergouwen | Saturday 17 November 2007 om 22h11

  5. Bon dimanche ,nuit tres froide ici - 6 degrés un temps a pas mettre un vélo dehors ciao byebye a+

    | Liserois | Saturday 17 November 2007 om 22h24

  6. Jammer hoor... Parijs-Nice vertrekt niet vanuit Parijs, de Tour de France komt in Engeland, Spanje, Italie, Belgie oh ja en ook nog in Frankrijk... ;-)

    Het zal allemaal wel met geld te maken hebben?!

    | Meggie | Sunday 18 November 2007 om 01h02

  7. Un joyeux anniversaire Thomas avec un peu de retard!
    Comme tu peux le voir je suis vraiment devenu un adepte de ton site
    A bientôt
    Marc

    | Marco | Wednesday 21 November 2007 om 17h07

  8. Bonjour Marc !

    Merci pour les félicitations ... même avec un peu de retard ça fait toujours plaisir :-).

    Je vois effectivement que tu es devenu un adepte de mon site et ça fait plaisir aussi ! Je suis en train d'écrire un nouvel article pour mon blog depuis quelques jours (et cet article sera le premier dans une petite série de deux) mais ça me prend un petit peu plus de temps qu'initialement prévu ... d'où le fait qu'il n'y a pas grand chose de nouveau depuis quelques jours !

    Sinon, l'UCI a découvert mon site aussi et notamment mon article au sujet de la vente du propriétaire de notamment le Tour d'Allemagne, Upsolut ... j'espère qu'ils ont pas mal pris ce que je dis sur le conflit entre les organisateurs des grands Tours et l'UCI qui risque maintenant de s'étendre au Deutschland Tour ;-).

    à bientôt !

    | Thomas Vergouwen | Wednesday 21 November 2007 om 23h14

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