Blog - Paris-Nice 2016

Paris-Nice 2016: Contador lightens up the 7th stage, victory for Wellens, the general for Thomas

The last stage of Paris-Nice 2016 was quite exciting till the end, especially thanks to Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) who tried once again to get rid of his competitors in the hilly back-country of Nice but he finally ended at 4 seconds from Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) in the general classification. The stage victory was for Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) who thus showed off the colours of Lotto-Fix ALL on the finish line in Nice.

The summary of the 7th stage of Paris-Nice 2016 - Nice > Nice

Ilnur Zakarin wins Paris-Nice 2016's queen stage, yellow for Geraint Thomas

A 9 rider strong breakaway lightened up today's queen stage in Paris-Nice 2016 between Nice and La Madone d'Utelle. Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie) was again present in this breakaway, like yesterday, and went off to collect some points for the King of the mountains classification, which allowed him to put on the polka dot jersey at the end of the afternoon. The stage victory was decided in the final climb and a small group of favourites battled for it in the last few kilometers. The rider who won the stage was however probably the one we expected the less in this group, the Russian rider Ilnur Zakarin (Team Katusha). Geraint Thomas ended the stage at the second place and takes the first place in the current general classification provisoire, the day before the final stage!

The summary of the 6th stage of Paris-Nice 2016: Nice > La Madone d'Utelle

Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) takes a solo win in the city of Nostradamus!

The 5th stage of Paris-Nice 2016 was particularly animated between Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and Salon-de-Provence today. A group of 8 riders controlled the race until the climb of the Mont Ventoux where the group fell apart. One of the survivors of the breakaway, Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie), finally went off alone, before being taken back and dropped by Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) who managed to stay ahead of the peloton until the finish and thus won the stage in a solo win.

The summary of the 5th stage of Paris-Nice 2016: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux > Salon-de-Provence

Nacer Bouhanni takes his revenge: winner of the sprint for the Paris-Nice stage win in Romans-sur-Isère

A bit as usual in this Paris-Nice 2016, we saw a 4 men breakaway being formed early in the stage and staying in front for several tens of kilometers. There was a bit more animation in this stage though than in the previous days and another breakaway stayed in front until the last kilometer. However, in the end the stage ended in a sprint and that's where Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis, solutions crédits) took revenge on the tumultuous sprint two days ago, by winning the sprint with one bike length ahead on Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) this time.

The summary of the 4th stage of Paris-Nice 2016: Juliénas > Romans-sur-Isère

A preview of the final circuit of Paris-Nice 2016's third stage with the Mont Brouilly in video

Today it's already the third stage which is on the programme of Paris-Nice 2016, from Cusset (close to Vichy) and the Mont Brouilly.

Thanks to Kinomap and Hubert Dupont (AG2R La Mondiale), you can already discover the race route of this final circuit in video with the never before climbed final climb (as a reminder, you can also see the complete race route on Google Maps here).

The weather conditions will however be much worse than what you can see in the video because rain is expected at the finish, with a very cold wind and maybe even some snow!

Hubert Dupont (AG2R La Mondiale) thus did a recognition ride on this final circuit and that's what you can discover in the video below ...

Nacer Bouhanni disclassified after a non regulatory sprint against Michael Matthews

Not surprisingly, the victory of the second stage of Paris-Nice 2016 in Commentry was decided in a sprint today. After the longest stage of this 74th edition of the Race to the sun, Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis, solutions crédits) seemed to go straight off to victory. However, since he left his straight line and went off to the left he thus prevented Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE), the yellow jersey, from doing his sprint correctly. The French rider thus compromised his stage victory and was declassified at the last place of his group (which means he was 3rd of the stage), the victory thus being for Matthews.

The summary of the 2nd stage of Paris-Nice 2016: Contres > Commentry

Arnaud Démare (FDJ) wins the sprint for the first stage of Paris-Nice 2016

The first stage of Paris-Nice 2016 offered 198 kilometers of racing between Condé-sur-Vesgre and Vendôme, with a final circuit which the riders had to do twice and which contained two sand roads of which one going uphill. Finally, these sand roads didn't really influence the result of the stage, which ended in a bunch sprint. This sprint was won by the French rider Arnaud Démare (FDJ) ahead of Ben Swift (Team Sky) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis).

The summary of the first stage of Paris-Nice 2016: Condé-sur-Vesgre > Vendôme

The sand roads of the circuit of Paris-Nice 2016's first stage in video

After yesterday's prologue, the first stage of Paris-Nice will take place today between Condé-sur-Vesgre and Vendôme over a distance of 198 kilometers.

The last part of these 198 kilometers will take place on a circuit which the riders will do two times and this circuit contains two sand roads. Thanks to Jérémy Roy and Kinomap, you can discover these sand roads before the race gets there because the rider of the FDJ team, who doesn't participate in Paris-Nice 2016, got out on his bike and filmed the final circuit!

Two sand roads will be on the programme of this first stage, which doesn't please to everyone as we can see in ...

A video preview of the Paris-Nice 2016 prologue's race route

In a few hours, the first rider (Rémy Di Gregorio, at 11.44AM) will start his prologue of Paris-Nice 2016, on the Seine river side in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.

You might have already discovered the race route on Google Maps and in Google Earth as well as the participants list and the list with the start order and -times of this prologue of 6.1 kilometers.

This article will allow you to discover this prologue even further since Kinomap allows you to discover its race route in a video next to the map showing the race route!

You'll see that this is a very urban race rou ...

The start list of Paris-Nice 2016 and the start order and -times of the prologue

Tomorrow, Paris-Nice 2016 will start with the 6.1 kilometer long prologue in the streets of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, followed by 7 stages in line which will bring the riders to the usual finish in Nice (see the Paris-Nice 2016 race route on Google Maps).

Except unexpected circumstances, 175 riders will come to the start (22 teams of 8 riders each, except for Lotto-Soudal which has one less) tomorrow and in this article you'll find all of them, including their bib numbers, but also the start order and -times of the prologue in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.

The participants list of Paris-Nice 2016