One day less. Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) enjoyed a relatively untroubled first day in yellow at Paris-Nice on stage 6, but he is mindful that the biggest challenges of this race are yet to come, starting with Saturday’s summit finish on the Col de Turini.
Snow has been forecast for the race’s visit to the 1607m-high pass on stage 7, although the outlook does not appear to be as grim as was predicted earlier in the week. No matter, some flurries of snow are expected and the temperature will be barely above freezing at the summit.
Roglič’s prior experience in winter sports doesn’t bear repeating, but he acknowledged in Aubagne on Friday that he would prefer not to deal with snow on the 14.9km up the Col de Turini.
The category-1 ascent, which featured on stage 2 of the 2020 Tour de France, has an average gradient of 7.3 per cent, with its most demanding section coming a little under 4km from the summit.
"I still love snow, for sure, but just not when I’m riding the bike. I prefer to do other things in the snow, but for riding the bike, I prefer it sunny and warm," said Roglič, who played a straight bat when asked if he was confident of carrying yellow to Nice this weekend.
"I’m confident in the training that we’ve put in, but I don’t really think about it. I don’t care. I will just do my best. At the end that’s all I can do. If that’s enough to win, we will win or we will be with the best ones. And if not, it’s nothing to be disappointed about."
Roglič, of course, experienced the disappointment of being denied overall victory by a heavy crash on the final stage a year ago, which left him with a rare defeat in a week-long stage race.
On that occasion, Roglič had carried a lead of 41 seconds into the final weekend of the race, which he extended further by winning atop La Colmiane the next day. This time out, he holds an advantage of 39 seconds over Simon Yates (Jayco-BikeExchange) ahead of the final two stages.
After being left relatively isolated in the finale of Thursday’s stage, when he had to track his rivals’ attacks by himself, Roglič enjoyed a day of relative calm in the peloton on stage 6, as Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) upset the sprinters with a late attack in Aubagne.
"It’s the beginning of the season and every day here is hard racing," Roglič said afterwards.
"It was again today super windy and really uncomfortable. At the end, it’s one less. Tomorrow is a big one, with a big climb, and hopefully I have the legs to go with the best ones."
Van Aert
While Roglič was untroubled in yellow, it was an afternoon of frustration for his teammate Wout van Aert, who had conceded the overall lead 24 hours earlier. The Belgian champion had to settle for third on the stage, as he was again outkicked by Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) in the finishing straight, while the late attacker Burgaudeau held on for the win.
"It’s clear that my sprint is slightly less than it has been before," Van Aert told Sporza afterwards.
"I am at the end of a very long and heavy training block. I notice that I lack freshness in the sprints. But that speed will come back by taking it easy, and that will be the case after Paris-Nice."
As well as his blunted sprint, Van Aert acknowledged that there had been some muddled communication on the run-in to Aubagne, where his teammate Christophe Laporte rode off the front of the peloton – seemingly inadvertently – as he chased Burgaudeau.
"There was also a communication error with Christophe Laporte. He was supposed to keep me in a good position," Van Aert said. "When we had to shift gears and use Christophe to chase, things went a bit wrong. I was badly positioned in the last three kilometres, so I had to waste energy."
Laporte, for his part, decried a lack of collaboration from other teams on the run-in, though he paid tribute to Burgaudeau’s enterprising solo effort.
"It was not for me; I was working for Wout," Laporte said of his move off the front in the finale. "I tried to close the gap in the last 3k but nobody followed. It was close but it’s like that.
"[Burgaudeau] was strong, of course, but it was really bad organisation in the peloton. The last 4k were really narrow with a lot of corners, so it was a good for a guy alone, and he did a really good job."
