Place Name: Chemin Saint-Pierre
Address: 3 Chemin Saint-Pierre, 06420 Isola, France
Details: March 14, 2026
Originally, Stage 7 was to go from Nice, into the Mercantour National Park, to the mountain top of Auron with two summits in between, covering nearly 140KM. A storm passed overnight and covered Auron in snow, making it impossible to get there safely by bike. At lower elevations, rain had hammered Nice, causing flooding in the city and minor landslides on parts of the course and, as a result, the stage was shortened to just 47KM. The new start will be given just before Plan-de-Var with the new finish line at the originally planned intermediate sprint in Isola village.
In the neutral zone, before the official start was even given, a crash on a roundabout took down Lennard Kämna of Lidl-Trek, Nico Denz of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, and Arthur Kluckers of Tudor Pro Cycling. KM0 came and went as the referees held the start due to multiple punctures and other mechanicals. When the flag was finally dropped, only 43.5KM remained and Visma-Lease a Bike immediatley started riding on the front. The first attacker came 10KM later in the form of Tim Marsman of Alpecin-Premier Tech. No one went with the Dutchman who was forced to ride ride up the false flat dragging valley road on his own. He built a maximum advantage of just over 30 seconds but there were plenty of sprinters in the field who would be eager to take advantage of an extra, unexpected opportunity at a stage win.
Other than Visma-Lease a Bike, Ineos were prominent at the front as were Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, each looking after their sprinters, Dorian Godon and Laurence Pithie respectively. The gap only started to come down with 12KM to go as the gradients increased an extra 0.5-1%. Decathlon CMA CGM and Tudor Pro Cycling joined the party at the front and Marsman was brought back with 9.5KM to go. Just outside of 7KM to go, another solo attack went from Nicolas Vinokurov of XDS-Astana. Shortly after, the riders entered the snow line and the ground was covered in white. Vinokurov was swept up 2KM later and we were set for a bunch sprint.
With 3KM to go, Visma-Lease a Bike and Decathlon CMA CGM were in dualling trains on each side of the road. The speed picked up as did the tension. A touch of wheels in the middle of the peloton brought down several riders and split the group to around 40 riders. Visma-Lease a Bike pulled off once they knew Jonas Vingegaard was safe and their place at the front was taken by Ineos with three riders in front of Godon. Under the 1KM banner, Ineos ramped up the pace and took sole control of the front. Lidl-Trek were trying to bring Mathias Vacek to the front as were Cofidis for their man, Bryan Coquard. Neither team could find a way through given the pace that Ineos were setting. A fight formed for Godon's wheel with Luke Lamperti of EF-Education EasyPost and Cees Bol of Decathlon CMA CGM. Lamperti won the position which pushed Bol into the wind and forced him to open his sprint first. Godon sensed the rush and started his sprint. After a few pedal revs, the French Champion had built an unassailable lead and took the victory with arms spread wide in joy. Following Bol was Biniam Girmay of NSN Cycling. He had to come from a long way back when the sprint started but managed to come around Bol on the line to take second with Bol in for third.
There were no changes in the GC top 10 but the final day around Nice, if it is raced as planned, will offer one last chance for riders to improve their overall spot.
Tags: Paris-Nice, 2026, Paris-Nice 2026, Stage 7, March, Nice, Auron, Tim Marsman, Dorian Godon, Nicolas Vinokurov, Cees Bol, Biniam Girmay