Canadians at Paris-Nice

The 68th edition of Paris-Nice started on Sunday March 7. The race ends on March 14 with three big climbs to keep riders and fans on edge. The start list is peppered with a number of well-known heavy hitters, among them three Canadians: Dominique Rollin (Cervelo Test Team), Christian Meier (Garmin-Transitions) and Svein Tuft (Garmin-Transitions). Rollin is coming off an outstanding fifth place finish at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne and is looking to build on this success.

In typical March fashion, the weather is wreaking havoc with this stage race, resulting in today’s stage being shortened by 53 km. Fresh snow and black ice in Saint-Junien forced organizers to move the start to St. Yriex, removing two category three climbs from the route. This third stage was won by Peter Sagan of Liquigas.

Garmin-Transitions rider Meier was the top Canadian of the day finishing in 84th position. Tuft finished in 107th and Rollin finished in 119th position. Overall in general classification, Rollin is sitting in 91st position, Tuft is in 119th position, and Meier is in 124th position.

We managed to catch-up with Meier after today’s stage, and he had this to say about the day, “We woke up this morning to massive snow flakes, but this being Paris-Nice we planned on racing straight from the get go. When we arrived at the stage start they told us we would just be signing on there and then getting back on the buses and driving the fifty first kilometers of the race. Once we got to the new start the weather was a brisk -1 Celsius but no snow so we were good to go. The racing was on from the go and stayed hard for the whole 155km. Our goal was again to take care of David Millar and get him in position for the final climb that came only 3 kilometers from the finish. Everything went well but a small group just got away. Today’s stage the and the next four are hard with relentless climbing but Dave’s up for it.”