The team time trial on Tuesday and the mountain from Wednesday until Sunday March 12 will be the keys to decide the battle
The couple arrives at the French date after exhibiting in Andalusia and Galicia
In cycling there is a classic that is already beginning to have its own color and that, moreover, has arrived very soon and unexpectedly. It is disputed by two riders who aspire to the Tour, which only one will achieve, and who have started the 2023 course in a spectacular way: Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard begin their first confrontation of the season this Sunday in Paris-Nice, until Sunday the 12th, by teleport and Eurosport.
They both want to arrive in Nice dressed in the same garment, identical yellow color and the same sponsors, who will also want to wear on Sunday July 23 in the most cycling avenue in the world, the Champs Elysees in Paris. And both start the ‘Carrera del Sol’ adding victories where they have participated. Pogacar won the solo Jaen Paradise, where he ran the first kilometers of the year. Then he signed up for the return to Andalusia and prevailed in three of the five stages. And if he did not win the other two, it was because the final climb was canceled in one of them due to strong winds and because there was no terrain on the last day to score another exhibition.
vingegaard enrolled in the O Great Way, the new Galician round, to win three of the four stages. And the same what pogacarHe did not register his name on the first day because it was canceled due to the snow.
So both put on a number on their backs this Sunday to maximize cycling intensity during a week in which the Paris-Nice will coincide, absurdly and as usual, with another main dish the Tirreno-Adriaticowhich also presents a luxury poster with names like roglic, Van AertPidcock, van der poel, Further, landa, alaphilippe… as if everyone had wanted to run away from the fashionable couple. It is incomprehensible that year after year, throughout life, these two magnificent tests occur at the same time.
From Italy to France
However, the dispute of the ‘race of the two seas’ in Italy will not manage to take away the impact of the duel between pogacar and vingegaard, who came by surprise when the Slovenian star changed his career plan. He usually ran the Tirreno-Adriatico to win it, although in the end he decided to look for new emotions in 2023 and sign up for events that he had never competed in, such as the Paris-Nice, where he obviously wants to win; among other things because pogacar He doesn’t know how to run any other way.
And if there was any doubt about the initiative that vingegaard He was going to take at the beginning of the cycling year -run at full speed or train with a bib- in Galicia his intentions were clear; all or nothing; to attack, to show off against the clock and to show that he wants to reach the Tour with a good collection of victories in the pockets of his ‘jersey’.
The couple will have a couple of stages, Sunday and Monday, where to warm up with a presumable sprint, to watch each other and even greet each other in a few kilometers of truce. On Wednesday there will be the first serious touch with the team time trial which can be transcendental since, if neither manages to lower the opponent on the mountain and they appear together, the seconds that the Jumbo or the Emirates achieve over the rival squad can be key in the final victory.
Starting on Wednesday, the mountains arrive, with two summit finishes, a transition day, a descent after a port and the slopes of the final stage around Nice with territory to cause one last mess in the race in a week of maximum level cyclist.