Paris-Nice stage 4 winner João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has rejected a widespread thought amongst his fellow riders that after unhealthy climate had induced the competitors to be neutralised throughout a brief interval earlier than the end, the day’s racing ought to have been cancelled completely .
Amongst these opposing the continuation of stage 4, as lastly occurred, was new race chief Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike). The Dane took second place on the Loge des Gardes summit behind Almeida. ‘Everyone was freezing, no person might really feel their brakes,” he mentioned later.
The stage was dropped at a halt by race officers attributable to snow, hail and heavy rain then the breakaway and peloton have been guided slowly underneath neutralised situations till 28.8km to go, the place racing resumed.
But regardless of admitting afterwards he was no fan of racing in chilly climate, and saying jokingly that “you should not ask the winner that”, Almeida additionally insisted that he was happy the stage had continued.
“The worst was over, there was no security threat, we even slowed down on the descent, so there was no motive to cease,” Almeida mentioned, in line with L’Équipe.
“Cycling isn’t a sport for softies, typically it’s a must to be robust.”
Thierry Gouvenou, the member of the race organisation with particular duty for security and who performed a key function in overseeing the neutralisation and subsequent restart, remained satisfied that the precise choice had been taken, too.
“We rapidly realised the stage wanted to be neutralised, the brand new UCI protocol says that in circumstances of race security, unhealthy climate, it is a choice for the jury and the organiser,” Gouvenou instructed L’Équipe. “So we stopped the break, the counter-attack and the bunch.”
Riding via a comparatively distant, rural a part of France at a long way from the closest large cities of Lyon and Clermont Ferrand made logistics more durable and “We needed to convey the race to decrease altitudes as rapidly as potential relatively than simply go away the riders uncovered to excessive situations in the midst of that.”
“Lots of them needed to cease, however stopping would have gotten nowhere – there have been no buses or locations for them to take shelter.”
Het Laatste Nieuws additionally reported that Gouvenou had claimed there have been a welter of various factors of view total for him to deal with, and that “143 riders [equals] 143 completely different opinions, after all. The truth is, we now have had different editions of Paris-Nice during which riders rode in 10 centimetres of snow, situations that have been a great distance off what we had now. The climate improved.”
Gouvenou added that when officers met with the riders’ representatives, Oliver Naesen (Decathlon AGR La Mondiale) and Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling), there had been an settlement to proceed the race.
However, Naesen had a notably completely different recollection of occasions, telling L’Équipe that he had not had time both to debate the proposal with Trentin earlier than the choice to proceed was taken, and that when he acquired to entrance of the race “the very first thing I heard was ‘the break’s again racing, we’re beginning once more in two minutes!’
“That was it. For me the race was ‘falsified’. Things cannot occur like that. We should have a warning, be instructed what’s taking place after which make the choice.”
Previous race chief Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) had an identical grievance, saying he did not know if the peloton was racing or neuralised after the restart.
Naesen agreed in any case that it had been the precise choice to neutralise the stage.
“There was no different. If the police motorcycle drivers, who’re the very best drivers who exist, could not do this descent [where the weather was worst – Ed.] with out falling off, what might a peloton of 150 riders do? It was simply inconceivable to go down with out an accident.”
Meanwhile there are rising issues that Saturday’s hardest mountain stage of Paris-Nice to Auron might be badly affected by snowfall. Last yr the extraordinarily unhealthy climate pressured organisers to alter an equivalent 149km stage path to the cat.1 ascent Auron, preceded by the cat. 1 Col de la Colmiane.
Last March the primary 89 kilometres of stage 7 remained the identical, nevertheless it then completed on the Madone d’Utelle, a 15.3-kilometre ascent averaging 5.7%. As but, although, ASO haven’t commented on any potential route swap for 2025’s equal stage.
