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2017 Paris-Nice preview: Porte, Bardet and Contador cross swords

Can Antoine Duchesne repeat as King of the Mountains?

March 3, 2017
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Sunday is the start of the 75th Paris-Nice, or the Race to the Sun, which promises to be an engaging WorldTour battle between a gaggle of stars. With a doozy of a summit finish on the queen stage, will Alberto Contador get revenge for last year’s queen runner-up spot to Geraint Thomas? Can Canadian Antoine “Tony the Tiger” Duchesne defend his King of the Mountains title?

Two time winner Porte and reigning champ Thomas battle in last year's Paris-Nice
Two time winner Porte and reigning champ Thomas battle in last year’s Paris-Nice

The race is neatly divided into two parts with a time trial buffering the two. Instead of a prologue time trial, Sunday’s stage in Bois d’Arcy is the first of three sprinter’s stages, which should delight German fastmen Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) and Marcel Kittel (Quick Step), along with Norwegian powerhouse Alexander Kristoff (Katusha). Frenchmen Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) and Arnaud Démare (FDJ) will all be looking for wins on home soil.

Like last year, Greipel and his teammates will be known as Lotto-FixAll and wearing these nifty kits with a little bottle of adhesive sublimated over the rear pocket just for Paris-Nice.

The time trial is fairly brief at 14.5-km and the final 3-km rises to 7%, which will ignite the GC battle and hinder the chrono specialists.

The latter half of the race is a mountainous affair. First comes Stage 6’s six categorized climbs including the Cat. 2 haul to the finish in Fayence. Stage 7 is the queen stage, one that ends with two Cat. 1’s. The summit finish on the Col de la Couillole is the highest point in the history of the race.


More climbing marks the race’s conclusion in Nice on March 12, five climbs in 115-km, with a Cat. 1 cresting 15-km from the finish line. Last year Contador tried to pull back 15-seconds to Thomas on this Col d’Eze climb, but could only grab 11.

Contador came second to Alejandro Valverde in February’s Ruta del Sol. Valverde was scheduled to contest Paris-Nice but fell sick. Thomas is skipping the race, giving new Colombian national champion Sergio Henao–sixth in 2016–a chance to win a major stage race for Sky. Frenchman Romain Bardet (AG2R) was sixth in the Tour of Oman. The favourite is two-time winner Richie Porte (Australia/BMC), who is being touted as Chris Froome’s most dangerous foe in this year’s Tour de France. Porte took his first Tour Down Under crown in January.

Other contenders are Daniel Martin (Ireland/Quick Step); Ilnur Zakarin (Russia/Katusha), who’ll like the time trial; and Giro d’Italia hopeful Steven Kruijswuijk (The Netherlands/LottoNL-Jumbo). Cannondale-Drapac sends in a dangerous trio: Canadian Michael Woods, Frenchman Pierre Rolland and Dutchman Tom-Jelte Slagter.

Last year Antoine Duchesne won the King of the Mountains competition by going out in the breaks in the last three stages of the race. Can he prevail again this year by holding off Jesus Herrada (Spain/Movistar and Thomas De Gendt (Belgium/Lotto-Soudal)?