Tadej Pogacar spoils, Jonas Vingegaard does not take over, Tim Merlier has the last word
The opening stage of Paris-Nice always has something in store and Tadej Pogacar was hungry for the hilly final.
A wall 20 kilometers from the finish already lured him out of his room, the last kink at 5.5 kilometers from the finish was the ideal lure to shake the tree.
The 6 bonus seconds on the top acted like a red rag to a bull and Pogacar completed his mission, but his hunger was not satisfied yet.
He didn’t stop his effort, but went out with Jonas Vingegaard – who couldn’t pick up any seconds – and Pierre Latour.
However, the Dane did not take over and neutralized Pogacar. Out of fear of more seconds at the finish or did he mainly fence with sprint team mate Olav Kooij?
So the bunch sprint came anyway and Tim Merlier handled it cleverly. He let Bora-Hansgrohe slide in and then came unstoppably out of the wake of Sam Bennett and Kooij.
Merlier was by far the fastest and a photo finish was completely unnecessary, but from the rear Arnaud De Lie’s sprint was absolutely impressive. However, he did not get further than 5th place.
