Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) came out swinging on the opening stage of Paris Nice with several dangerous attacks in the closing kilometres of the 164km stage to La Verrière, despite a profile designed for sprinters.
The two-time Tour de France winner opted for the start line of the 90th edition of the Race to the Sun instead of his typical Tirreno-Adriatico attendance and made his form, and GC intentions, known early in the eight-day stage race.
His first attack came on the last climb of the day at Côte de Milon-la-Chapelle with 20km to go, when he took off with Neilson Powless (EF Education-Easypost) after sprinting for KOM points at the top of the Cat. 3 ascent, and carrying their momentum over the summit.
The bonus of six seconds saw Pogacar get an early advantage in the general classification, where he now sits in third place.
In terms of stage victory, the move was ultimately unsuccessful but caused panic in the scattered peloton, creating a small group of favourites at the front. Powless later capitalised on the chaos and launched another bold move out of the reduced front group and, this time, caught some daylight.
After Powless was brought back to the bunch, Pogacar saw a flash of opportunity once again, this time with 7km to go, after targeting the bonus sprint.
“The owner said, in the middle of the race, we go after the bonus sprint, but, then we got the gap,” Pogacar said after the stage.
The 24-year-old, one of the most marked riders in the 154-strong peloton, nabbed the precious six-second time bonus and looked back to see defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) and Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) along for the ride with 5km to go.
For a moment, it looked as though the move might come to fruition, but when Pogacar noticed Vingegaard wasn’t pulling through, he realized his chances to take it to the line ahead of the sprinters was minimal and quickly gave up the effort with 3km to go.
“With just two guys working, it was not enough, and headwind also,” Pogacar said. “And then it was obvious it was going to be a sprint, so I sat up, waited in the bunch and went safely across the finish line.”
“I see that he [Vingegaard] will not pull at all, so it was no point to continue,” Pogacar said. “So I decided to sit up and save a little bit of the legs for the next day. At the start, I felt a bit shit, but now every hour in, I felt a little better. So I hope the next days will be something.”
Pogacar’s six-second bonus still placed him in third after the first stage, setting the UAE team leader up well for the rest of the week.
