Paris-Nice queen stage summit finish axed due to heavy snow

The summit finish of today’s queen stage of Paris-Nice has had to be scrapped due to heavy snow.

Late last night, race organiser ASO said the finish at Auron resort was “inconceivable” as a mix of rain and heavy snow forecast for the high-altitude finish.

It added that the bad weather was expected to affect areas above 1,100m, far below the 1,600m Auron finish line.

Instead, the race will end in Isola-Village at the foot of the climb, which had been scheduled to host the intermediate sprint, and sits at an altitude of just 858m.

The stage will now be just 120.4km long.

The cancellation was not entirely unexpected as the weather forecast had looked unfavourable for several days and ASO said it had been “monitoring the weather conditions in the Alpes-Maritimes department throughout the week”.

It added it had consulted with the sport’s governing body the UCI, teams representative the AIGC and rider union the CPA before making its decision.

Race director Yannick Talabardon told l’Equipe: “Fifteen centimetres were expected in Auron, which made it difficult to maintain the course.”

He added: “Isola-Village is at the foot of the climb to Isola 2000, so it won't be a summit finish as the profile might suggest. It's more of a long, false flat uphill.

That will provide a boost to Jonas Vingegaard’s (Visma-Lease a Bike) chances of clinching a maiden Paris-Nice title as he is unlikely to lose any significant chunks of his 3.22 lead on a stage that now favour the baroudeurs and maybe even the sprinters.

He had seen the change coming. On Friday afternoon, he told l’Equipe: "It's rather worrying, the weather isn't going to be good, there's going to be snow. For the organisers, it's very difficult to make this decision; we all would have liked to go as far as Auron. I haven't checked the weather forecast yet, but it might not be possible to finish the stage tomorrow."

The Dane will now just have to navigate defending his lead over Sunday’s traditional final lumpy stage around Nice, which includes three first category ascents: the Col de la Porte, the Côte de Châteauneuf-Villevieille and the Côte de Linguador.