Europe 1 with AFP 9:46 p.m., March 5, 2023

Tadej Pogacar began his duel with Jonas Vingegaard in the most beautiful way on Paris-Nice by grabbing six seconds overall from the first stage, won in the sprint on Sunday at La Verrière by the Belgian Tim Merlier.

The first tricolor, Bryan Coquard, finished in seventh place.

The duel is on.

Even if the first stage of Paris-Nice was won in the sprint by the Belgian Tim Merlier, it was Tadej Pogacar who achieved the performance of the day by taking six seconds overall from his main competitor Jonas Vingegaard.

Six seconds doesn't seem like much.

But on a test as tight as the "race to the sun", where the final result is often played in a pocket handkerchief, this little savings can be counted by the arrival in Nice next Sunday.

To take this small advantage, the Slovenian, third overall, showed his muscles in the climb of the 17 Turns, placed six kilometers from the finish and swallowed at full speed by a grouped peloton which had resumed twenty minutes earlier. the two escapees of the day, Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies) and Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X).

>> READ ALSO

- A mixed record for the Blues at the European Track Cycling Championships

Bonus Sprint

At the top of this mythical climb in the Chevreuse valley, "Pogi", very leggy, pocketed the six seconds of the bonus sprint, against zero to his Danish rival, a little less lively and only fourth.

The two champions then continued their effort over several hundred meters in the company of Pierre Latour and, for a few moments, we thought we were seeing each other again on the roads of the Tour de France when Pogacar and Vingegaard, the future winner, had struck each other. suddenly last July.

6km


Intermediate Sprint


Côte des Dix-Sept Tournants



1️⃣ @TamauPogi, 6''


2️⃣ @p_latour, 4''


3️⃣ @DorianGodon , 2''#ParisNicepic.twitter.com/aREiHt7H92

– Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) March 5, 2023

After a brief discussion, they got up.

But, both authors of a great start to the season, they confirmed that they were in good shape, even if Vingegaard walks around (as a precaution, he says) with an FFP2 mask as soon as he gets off the bike.

>> READ ALSO

- Cycling: the Tour de France will start from Florence in 2024, the first start from Italy

"Hardly Believable"

Already in the previous bump, the violent climb of Million, the two favorites had put the turbo, bursting the peloton in a very nervous final, marked by a fall which notably sent the Frenchman Thibault Guernalec (Arkéa-Samsic) to the mat.

Several sprinters left feathers there, even if, in the end, this first stage ran under the grayness and 169.4 km long, ended in a grouped finish, with the "big thighs" at the front.

Wearing his Belgian champion jersey, Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) proved to be the strongest to win quite clearly ahead of the Irishman Sam Bennett (Bora) and the Dane Mads Pedersen (Trek Segafredo).

It is already the fourth success of the season for the new recruit of Patrick Lefevere which gives a little balm to the heart of Quick-Step, relegated to the shadows by the Jumbo-Visma on the first Belgian classics.

"I'm having an unbelievable start to the season, it's great for me and the team," commented the 30-year-old Belgian, who will wear the leader's yellow jersey on Monday.

This second stage, which will take the peloton over 163.7 km from Bazainville (Yvelines) to Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne), also seems promised to the sprinters.

But in current cycling, where the all-out attack has been established as a basic principle by blasters like Pogacar, we are certainly not immune to a new skirmish between favorites.