A Grand Tour in his future?
The 25-year-old American showed by his performance that he has become a superb rider, destined to be one of Visma–Lease a Bike’s primary weapons in the future, perhaps even at a Grand Tour. He has become an excellent climber, a terrific time trial rider and has a refined strategic intelligence. He rode without team support for most of the final stage and managed to outwit and outride all of his GC rivals.
However, he owed much of his advantage to his team. Jorgenson took over the race lead after the stage 3 team time trial, which Visma–Lease a Bike won by 14 seconds over Jayco-AlUla. Then, with about 60 km left to ride on stage 6, Visma destroyed the peloton with a brutal attack in the wind that left behind all but two of his closest rivals. Only 16 riders managed to stay in that leading group, with arch-rival João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates–XRG) left dangling in the wind, eventually finishing 1:54 behind Jorgenson. He eventually finished almost 4 minutes behind the winner.
Jorgenson’s final margin over second-place Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) was 1:15. Thymen Arensman of INEOS Grenadiers finished third, at 1:58. INEOS’s Magnus Sheffield won Sunday’s final stage, by 29 seconds over Jorgenson. It was his first World Tour victory and added to the very good week the British team enjoyed as it appears to be turning around its recent run of misfortune and bad form.
After winning the race last year, Jorgenson had described his victory as “a dream.” This year he said, “It’s a relief more than anything. There’s a lot of stress coming off me now. I’ve been thinking about this race for four months.”
View this post on Instagram
He added that this win had reinforced his desire to ride in and win a Grand Tour. “It was something that I have thought about a lot during the off-season,” Jorgenson said. “Because last year the team asked me if it was something I wanted, to race a Grand Tour as a leader. And, yes, it is something in my career that now is a goal. I think before, it was one of those goals that seemed almost impossible. I never thought I could win Paris-Nice and now I’ve won twice. Now it’s time to set the bar higher. I can’t say that I’m capable of winning a Grand Tour, but at least I want to try.”
Vingegaard crashes, Pedersen impresses
Two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard, who had been Visma’s co-leader, was apparently affected by the cold weather that disrupted the race and crashed on a slow ascent on stage 5, bruising his wrist and forcing him to drop out.
On stage 4, the temperature had dropped suddenly and it began to rain, hail, sleet and snow. Organisers temporarily shut the stage down with about 45 km left to ride and started it again about 28 km from the finish line when conditions improved. But it remained cold through Saturday.
Vingegaard was not happy about the way that stage had been managed. “I’m just not really happy at the moment because, in my opinion, we should never have raced this final, and we should never have continued when we did,” he told CyclingProNet. “Everyone was freezing. Nobody could feel their brakes.”
A very honourable mention should go to the indefatigable Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) who showed great climbing chops while supporting his team leader, Mattias Skjelmose. Unfortunately, Skjelmose crashed out on Saturday’s penultimate stage while he was sitting third in the GC, 59 seconds behind Jorgenson. Pedersen rode the mountains with ferocity on Sunday to snatch enough points to win the green jersey.
Looking ahead to Milan-Sanremo
Some of the riders in Paris-Nice, as well as Tirreno-Adriatico, which was also run this week, were using the races as preparation for what many consider the toughest one-day road race of all, Milan-Sanremo, to be run next Saturday. Pedersen, Filippo Ganna, and former world champion Mathieu van der Poel were among those looking ahead.
The Alpecin-Deceuninck leader was prominent in several Tirreno-Adriatico stages and finished second on stage 5, 7 seconds behind the surprise winner, Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility). Though he failed to win a stage, the Dutchman was happy with how he had ridden.
“I think I found the extra few per cent I was looking for here,” van der Poel told Sporza. Asked who his main opponents in Milan-Sanremo would be, he said, “That’s not difficult: the prominent riders in the race. In this Tirreno, that was mainly Filippo Ganna. He has already proven that he is a potential winner for Milan-Sanremo. Mads Pedersen is also doing well in Paris-Nice. And then there’s Tadej Pogačar who is still at home.”
Add to that mix Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) as well as just about every top sprinter in the sport and you’ve got a recipe for a spectacular race – weather permitting.
