In modern cycling there have been great teams, in which their teammates would have been leaders in any other squad. The British Sky chained five Tours in a row, Mapei when it absorbed GB and Clas or Manolo Sáiz’s ONCE, who could beat you in any race. No one had ever been able to win Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico in the same year, two races that run almost in parallel, since their dates coincide and which ended this Sunday.
This has been achieved for the first time in history by Visma-Lease a Bike, the successor to the Jumbo. Last year the Dutch structure was the first team to tyrannize the three three-week grand tours: Giro, Tour and Vuelta.
Jonas Vingegaard already had the Italian race in his pocket after winning the two mountain stages on Friday and Saturday. But in the French round, Matteo Jorgenson had to go on the attack to take the lead from McNulty (UAE) on the final day, with six passes in just over 100 km around the Côte d’Azur.
Signed this winter from Movistar, the 24-year-old cyclist becomes the first American to win Paris-Nice since Landis in 2006. Jorgenson teamed up with a super combative Remco Evenepoel (Soudal) to unseat his compatriot McNulty from first place, which was 4 seconds ahead of him.
Evenepoel attacked three almost consecutive times on the ascent to the Côte de Peille, First Division, and broke the group of favorites with more than 40 km to go. Only Jorgenson and Vlasov (Bora) could follow him. Together they climbed the steep Col d’Èze and Col des Quatre-Chemins, where Vlasov stayed. On the English walk, Jorgenson did not even sprint in gratitude and Evenepoel raised his arms.
Behind them, a trail. McNulty came on with more than a minute and a half left. Bernal left two, Almeida, three. Roglic lost four minutes. “This means a lot. I’m shaking. It’s a huge moment for me, there are a lot of emotions together,” he said, happily, the American. It is the second race that Jorgenson wins, after the 2023 Tour of Oman. In Paris-Nice last year, with the Movistar jersey, he could only finish eighth.
After this week’s exhibition, no one is surprised that Visma, whose jersey is a little more yellow than it was with the Jumbo name, is the team with the most wins in 2024, with 15 successes. Seven of them are from Vingegaard, the leader at the beginning of the course.
If anyone thought that Jonas Vingegaard, winner of the last two editions, was going to be more alone in the Tour de France due to the departure of Roglic (to Bora) and Van Aert’s decision not to participate in the race in July, in This start has seen that the team’s potential continues to be superior. Jorgenson has not been the only reinforcement as Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora) and Ben Tulett (Ineos) have also arrived, who have helped the Dane in the Tirreno-Adriatico, where the last stage was won by Milan (Lidl) in a sprint.
