Paris-Nice will returns for 2021 as the first major European stage race of the season, with a stellar line-up expected for the 79th edition of the Race to the Sun.
Last year's event was the final stage race to go ahead before the coronavirus pandemic caused a complete cessation of racing until August, however the eighth and final stage was scrapped due to the continuing escalation of the pandemic. German Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) was confirmed the winner of the 2020 edition after seven stages, beating Tiesj Benoot (then Sunweb) to the overall victory. Both riders return for the 2021 race.
This year the race will be back with eight stages, including some enticing hilly stages, flat runs for the sprinters, the decisive mountain stages, and a crucial individual time trial. All the WorldTour teams are included of course, with Alpecin-Fenix qualifying automatically for a place as the highest-ranked ProTour team last year. B&B Hotels p/b KTM, Arkéa-Samsic, and Total Direct Energie fill the wildcard places.
There's already some serious GC talent confirmed on the Paris-Nice 2021 start list: Vuelta a España winner Primož Roglič will chase victory alongside Steven Kruijswijk for Jumbo-Visma, while Giro d'Italia winner Tao Geoghegan Hart will start for Ineos along with Richie Porte and Rohan Dennis. The Brit will come up against his rival from the Giro, Jai Hindley (Team DSM) for the first time since they finished first and second in Italy last October. Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) will no doubt be aiming to stay in the mix for the overall win, as will Astana's Aleksandr Vlasov. Frenchmen David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) will be outside bets at taking a surprise win in their home stage race.
There's also a raft of sprint talent on the start list, including Ireland's Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), French champion Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), Italian champion Giacomo Nizzolo (Assos-Qhubeka), Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates), Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange), and Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) among a host of others. Classics riders like Mads Pedersen and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Oliver Naesen (Ag2r-Citroën), and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) will hope to disrupt the sprinters on the flatter stages as they use the race as preparation for their spring campaigns.
Other notable inclusions on the start list include Thomas De Gendt and Philippe Gilbert (Lotto-Soudal), Søren Kragh Andersen (Team DSM), Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic), and Sep Vanmarcke (Israel Start-Up Nation) on a star-studded start list.
The 2021 Paris-Nice starts on Sunday March 7 in Saint-Cyr-L’École and finishes on Sunday March 14 in Nice.
Paris-Nice 2021 start list
Bora-Hansgrohe
SCHACHMANN Maximilian
ACKERMANN Pascal
BENEDETTI Cesare
GROßSCHARTNER Felix
MEEUS Jordi
POLITT Nils
SCHWARZMANN Michael
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
GILBERT Philippe
DE GENDT Thomas
DEGENKOLB John
GOOSSENS Kobe
OLDANI Stefano
VANHOUCKE Harm
VERMEERSCH Florian
UAE Team Emirates
COSTA Rui
KRISTOFF Alexander
DE LA CRUZ David
BYSTRØM Sven Erik
TRENTIN Matteo
OLIVEIRA Rui
MCNULTY Brandon
Qhubeka-Assos
NIZZOLO Giacomo
ARU Fabio
HENAO Sergio
ARMÉE Sander
CAMPENAERTS Victor
WALSCHEID Max
PELUCCHI Matteo
Bahrain-Victorious
TEUNS Dylan
BAUHAUS Phil
HAUSSLER Heinrich
ARASHIRO Yukiya
HALLER Marco
HAIG Jack
MÄDER Gino
Jumbo-Visma
ROGLIČ Primož
BENNETT George
HOFSTEDE Lennard
KRUIJSWIJK Steven
MARTIN Tony
OOMEN Sam
VAN EMDEN Jos
Astana-Premier Tech
BATTISTELLA Samuele
SOBRERO Matteo
FRAILE Omar
IZAGIRRE Ion
SÁNCHEZ Luis León
LUTSENKO Alexey
VLASOV Aleksandr
Ineos Grenadiers
PORTE Richie
VAN BAARLE Dylan
DE PLUS Laurens
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao
DENNIS Rohan
SWIFT Ben
AMADOR Andrey
AG2R Citroën Team
PARET-PEINTRE Aurélien
NAESEN Oliver
DEWULF Stan
GODON Dorian
JUNGELS Bob
TOUZÉ Damien
O'CONNOR Ben
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
MARTIN Guillaume
PEREZ Anthony
PÉRICHON Pierre-Luc
ALLEGAERT Piet
GESCHKE Simon
WALLAYS Jelle
LAPORTE Christophe
Deceuninck-Quick-Step
BENNETT Sam
DECLERCQ Tim
SÉNÉCHAL Florian
LAMPAERT Yves
MØRKØV Michael
CAVAGNA Rémi
CATTANEO Mattia
EF Education-Nippo
CORT Magnus
ARROYAVE Daniel
KEUKELEIRE Jens
POWLESS Neilson
RUTSCH Jonas
EL FARES Julien
BISSEGGER Stefan
Groupama-FDJ
GUARNIERI Jacopo
GAUDU David
SINKELDAM Ramon
DÉMARE Arnaud
ARMIRAIL Bruno
SCOTSON Miles
KONOVALOVAS Ignatas
Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
MEINTJES Louis
VAN POPPEL Danny
EIKING Odd Christian
VAN POPPEL Boy
VAN DER HOORN Taco
TAARAMÄE Rein
KOCH Jonas
Israel Start-Up Nation
BARBIER Rudy
VANMARCKE Sep
BRÄNDLE Matthias
BEVIN Patrick
HOFSTETTER Hugo
NEILANDS Krists
GREIPEL André
Movistar Team
JORGENSON Matteo
ROJAS José Joaquín
MÜHLBERGER Gregor
JACOBS Johan
ARCAS Jorge
MORA Sebastián
ERVITI Imanol
Team BikeExchange
DURBRIDGE Luke
EDMONDSON Alex
HAMILTON Lucas
KONYCHEV Alexander
GROVES Kaden
MATTHEWS Michael
JANSEN Amund Grøndahl
Team DSM
BOL Cees
BENOOT Tiesj
PEDERSEN Casper
HINDLEY Jai
SÜTTERLIN Jasha
EEKHOFF Nils
KRAGH ANDERSEN Søren
Trek-Segafredo
BERNARD Julien
ELISSONDE Kenny
KIRSCH Alex
MOSCA Jacopo
PEDERSEN Mads
STUYVEN Jasper
THEUNS Edward
B&B Hotels p/b KTM
HIVERT Jonathan
COQUARD Bryan
LECROQ Jérémy
PACHER Quentin
BARTHE Cyril
LEMOINE Cyril
GAUTIER Cyril
Arkéa-Samsic
BARGUIL Warren
BOUHANNI Nacer
BOUET Maxime
RUSSO Clément
MCLAY Daniel
DELAPLACE Anthony
SWIFT Connor
Alpecin-Fenix
PHILIPSEN Jasper
RIESEBEEK Oscar
VERVAEKE Louis
THWAITES Scott
LEYSEN Senne
DE BONDT Dries
SBARAGLI Kristian
Total Direct Energie
BOASSON HAGEN Edvald
LATOUR Pierre
VUILLERMOZ Alexis
DOUBEY Fabien
TURGIS Anthony
LAWLESS Chris
VAN GESTEL Dries
Tim Bonville-Ginn is one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter.
Bonville-Ginn started working in cycling journalism while still at school and university for a voluntary site based on Twitter before also doing slots for Eurosport's online web team and has been on location at the Tour de Yorkshire, Tour of Britain, UCI World Championships and various track events. He then joined the Cycling Weekly team in late February of 2020.
When not writing stories for the site, Bonville-Ginn doesn't really switch off his cycling side as he watches every race that is televised as well as being a rider himself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager.
He rides a Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on his local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being his preferred terrain.
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