Visma’s Vingegaard and Jorgenson on top of Paris-Nice after team time trial

O'Connor and Vlasov keep in the GC fight with solid rides

Rob Sturney March 11, 2025

The Race to the Sun kept knifing towards warmer climes on Tuesday with the team time trial, where reigning champion Matteo Jorgenson and Jonas Vingegaard stamped their authority on the race with a victory. Jorgenson assumed the race lead from Tim Merlier, leading Vingegaard by six seconds. The day was also good for the GC ambitions of Jayco-AlUla’s new ace Ben O’Connor (+0:21 on GC) and Red Bull’s Aleksandr Vlasov (+0:31). Another one of the pre-race favourites, João Almeida, has a bigger deficit (+0:48) to make up before Sunday’s conclusion.

The Situation So Far

Merlier of Soudal-QuickStep took the first two stages, giving him six victories in his first 15 days of racing. One hundred and twenty six riders were within 20 seconds of him, including Jorgenson at +0:14.

The Course

The team chrono was 28.4 rolling kilometres starting from the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours motor racing track and finishing in Nevers. The intermediate time check was at the 14 km mark. Four minute gaps separated the teams. UAE-Emirates, who won the TTT last year, and Visma-LAB, the 2023 conquerers, would both race early. Tuesday’s rules were interesting: the time each team posted was based on that of their first rider over the line, but in terms of GC times, each rider’s time was based on when they individually crossed the line.

Tuesday’s course. Image by La FlammeRouge.

The first outfit to roll down the ramp was Tudor, who set the first intermediate time of 16:15. The Swiss ProTeam finished in 31:32.

Julian Alaphilippe with his new Tudor team.

Purple-clad Jayco-AlUla took over the best intermediate and final times, despite big engine Luke Durbridge crashing out on Monday. UAE-Emirates was lagging a bit at the midway point but Visma-Lease a Bike was really flying–15:38 at the intermediate check. Jorgenson and Vingegaard then knocked Jayco off the hot seat with 30:26.

It was clear by the intermediate check that Merlier’s Soudal squad wasn’t exactly rampaging around the course.

Merlier and his squad did their best, but the Belgian sprinter was fated to lose yellow.

There will be a further decanting on Wednesday with a Cat. 1 summit finish.

2025 Paris-Nice, Stage 3
1) Visma-Lease a Bike 30:26
2) Jayco-AlUla +0:14
3) Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe +0:24

2025 Paris-Nice GC
1) Matteo Jorgenson (USA/Visma-LAB) 8:13:52
2) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Visma-LAB) +0:06
3) Michael Matthews (Australia/Jayco-AlUla) +0:21