Change of gear

March 12 ^th 2025 - 04:20

The truth of the team time trial can quickly be overturned. Visma-Lease a Bike put on an impressive performance on Tuesday, propelling Matteo Jorgenson to the yellow and white jersey with Jonas Vingegaard by his side, in a dominant fashion echoing their victory in the same discipline in 2023, when the organisers of Paris-Nice introduced the new format that sees each rider be credited with his own time on the line. Vingegaard was in prime position after the TTT… On the next day, he struggled on the slopes up La Loge des Gardes, jostled by Tadej Pogačar and David Gaudu until the Dane faded, eventually finishing 6th and dropping 43’’. A handful of seconds later, Matteo Jorgenson was still wearing the Movistar jersey at the time.

The context is quite different in the first few weeks of the 2025 season. Pogačar and Gaudu are absent. And the blow dealt to the competition by the Vingegaard-Jorgenson duo gives them a significant advantage before this first climbing challenge. They will certainly have to contain or respond to the attacks of distanced riders, who will not give up until they have tried everything. But the American leader, flanked by his co-leader, has a lead of 21’’ on Ben 0’Connor, 31’’ on Aleksandr Vlasov, 41’’ on Mattias Skjelmose and 48’’ on Joao Almeida, to name only a few rivals. Visma-Lease a Bike claim they’re confident they have the means to contain them and lead one of their leaders to victory in Nice. Jorgenson or Vingegaard?