Breaking tradition. Exceptionally, the 2026 edition of Paris-Nice will not end on the Promenade des Anglais, requisitioned for the municipal elections. The runners will therefore give their last pedal strokes in the heart of the Allianz Riviera, the OGC Nice stadium.
Before this atypical epilogue, on March 15, eight very varied but fairly classic stages will await the peloton. Indeed, the 84th edition of the “Race to the Sun”, presented on Wednesday in Versailles, will follow its traditional architecture with a start in Yvelines before gaining momentum with the first tricky plain stages.
What’s next? A team time trial, a mid-week summit finish in Uchon – in the south of Morvan – a mountain stage on Saturday in the Nice hinterland, in Auron, and the terminus in Nice.
The Paris-Nice 2026 route:
Sunday March 8 : Achères (Yvelines) – Carrières-sous-Poissy (Yvelines), 171.2 km
Monday March 9 : Épône (Yvelines) – Montargis (Loiret), 187 km
Tuesday March 10 : Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire (Nièvre) – Pouilly-sur-Loire (Nièvre), Team time trial (23.5 km)
Wednesday March 11 : Bourges (Cher) – Uchon (Saône-et-Loire), 195 km
Thursday March 12 : Cormoranche-sur-Saône (Ain) – Colombier-le-Vieux (Ardèche), 205.4 km
Friday March 13 : Barbentane (Bouches-du-Rhône) – Apt (Vaucluse), 179.3 km
Saturday March 14 : Nice – Auron (Alpes-Maritimes), 138.7 km
Sunday March 15 : Nice – Nice, 145 km
The great novelty of this summary of the Tour de France therefore concerns the arrival, not planned on the Promenade des Anglais so as not to block access to the polling stations for the first round of the municipal elections.
Pogacar and Evenepoel absent, Vingegaard uncertain
The successor of the outgoing double winner, the American Matteo Jorgenson, will therefore be crowned at the Allianz Riviera, where OGC Nice is experiencing turbulent times this season, after a final stage whose route has also been modified: no Col d’Èze this time, but the Linguador coast (3.3 km at 8.8%) as justice of the peace.
There will also be, for the fourth consecutive year, a team time trial of 23.5 km on Tuesday in Nièvre. It will be of even more interest to the peloton as the same exercise will be on the menu for the first stage of the next Tour de France in July 2026 in Barcelona.
As for the participants, neither Tadej Pogacar, winner in 2023, nor Remco Evenepoel have included Paris-Nice on their program, which is most often contested in trying weather conditions. Jonas Vingegaard, who gave up last year, is not due to reveal his schedule until January but optimism is not necessarily in order either.
At this stage, the organizers are counting on Simon Yates, João Almeida, Juan Ayuso, Kévin Vauquelin, Lenny Martinez and even David Gaudu to lead the fight for the general.
