Luis León Sánchez and Alberto Contador congratulated each other before a stage of the 2009 Paris-Nice, where they battled each other. (Image credit: AFP)
Twenty two teams have been invited to start the 2010 edition of Paris-Nice on March 7 in Montfort l'Amaury. Seven stages will then take the the riders to the finish in Nice on March 14.
Astana is one of the invited teams which means that Alberto Contador, winner of the 2009 Tour de France, will have the opportunity to erase his bad memories of last year's Paris-Nice. Contador won the opening stage time trial and a later stage in the mountains, where he took over the GC lead. However, on the penultimate stage, he bonked and lost the overall to Luis León Sánchez.
Quick Step could line up Sylvain Chavanel, who won stage three and finished second overall in 2009. Last year, the Frenchman won the points jersey, too.
The BMC, Milram and Footon-Servetto teams are not included among the starting teams.
John Lelangue, the chief directeur sportif of BMC clarified to Cyclingnews that BMC had not sought an invitation to Paris-Nice. World Champion Cadel Evans, seeking to preview stages of the Giro d'Italia, preferred to race the Monte Paschi Eroica and Tirreno-Adriatico, which overlaps with Paris-Nice.
"We were not surprised not to be selected because we never put in a candidature for Paris-Nice to ASO," said Lelangue. "I had a discussion with Christian Prudhomme regarding our decision to field one strong team to Tirreno-Adriatico instead of two teams, and he understood our position."
Teams for 2010 Paris-Nice AG2R La Mondiale Astana Bbox Bouygues Telecom Caisse d’Epargne Cervelo Test Team Cofidis, le Crédit en ligne Euskaltel - Euskadi Française des Jeux Garmin-Transitions Katusha Team Lampre-Farnese Vini Liquigas-Doimo Omega Pharma-Lotto Quick Step Rabobank Saur-Sojasun Skil-Shimano Team HTC-Columbia Team Radio Shack Team Saxo Bank Team Sky Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team
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