March 15, 2026
The finish of Paris-Nice may be down on the relaxing coast line but the final stage is no walk in the park. The first 50KM out of the gate are all uphill to the summit of the Col de la Porte. The official classified part of the climb is 6.9KM at 7% while the preceding kilometers will be on false flat roads following the Var upstream before turning North East towards Duranus and Lantosque for the Col de la Porte proper. A 20KM descent will follow, leading the riders to the base of the penultimate categorized climb on the day of the Côte de Châteauneuf-Villevieille, a 6.7KM ascent at 6.4%. The course will roll over a shallow climb through Aspremont before the final test of the week, the Côte du Linguador. The climb is short at 3.3KM but it averages over 8% and will sting after such a difficult week of racing. The final wrinkle on the day is a bonus sprint on top of a 1,400M rise at 4% with just 9KM to go in the 129KM stage. The final few kilometers are downhill to Nice and the finish in front of the Allianz Riviera stadium.
Race Summary
The difference in weather between yesterday and today was like day and night. The golden sunlight that you only get at this latitude was glowing brightly on the slopes of the Alpes-Maritimes. Even the temperatures were up around 17C (63F) making for a brilliant way to close out the week. Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quickstep was on the attack early and with 67KM to go, he had 40 seconds on a chasing Marc Soler of UAE-XRG and 1 minute 15 seconds on a significantly reduced peloton near the bottom of the descent off the Col de la Porte. Visma-Lease a Bike were setting the pace and were under no real threat to either Soler or Paret-Peintre but didn't want the race to get out of hand.
Soler was caught with 53KM to go as Ineos ramped up the pace heading into the Côte de Châteauneuf-Villevieille. Ineos went warp speed up the first section and had the group trimmed down to just 15 riders very quickly. The pressure was on and everyone was at their limit. Dani Martinez of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe was trying to move up into better position just at the same time his teammate Laurence Pithie was looking the other way. They drifted into one another and Martinez crashed heavily on his right side. By the time he got up, the race was moving away from him, as was his position in second overall. Fortunately for the Colombian, he started the day with a 2 minute 30 second buffer to George Steinhauser in third and he had at least two teammates with him to help.
At the front of the peloton, Ineos were down to just Josh Tarling in front of Kévin Vauquelin and they made the decision to back off slightly. Paret-Peintre rebuilt his gap to 30 seconds from just 8 seconds and the favorites groups swelled to around 25 riders. Tarling pulled off 2KM from the top and the workload was taken back up by Visma-Lease a Bike. At the top with 46KM to go, Paret-Peintre had 30 seconds on the bunch which contained all of the favorites except for Dani Martinez who was a further 90 seconds but still with two teammates by his side.
Advantage went to the peloton on the shallow gradients of Aspremont and Paret-Peintre's lead was cut to just 10 seconds by the top. The Martinez group had also closed in to 1 minute 10 seconds behind the peloton and it was looking like the day would be saved. The riders descended down to the Var river and the wide highway heading towards the Côte du Linguador. Paret-Peintre was reabsorbed and, with 23KM to go, Martinez was within 1 minute.
1KM later, the favorites group swung on to the final categorized climb of the week. Victor Campenaerts rode on the front and, as they went higher, so did the speed. Things got serious with 2.5KM to the top when Campenaerts accelerated like it was a sprint effort. The only riders still present were his teammate and race leader Jonas Vingegaard and Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious by the time the Belgian pulled off. Vingegaard attacked but Martinez had him matched. They continued up the hairpins, increasing their gap back to a chase group that contained Steinhauser, Vauquelin, Harold Tejada of XDS-Astana, and Mathys Rondel of Tudor Pro Cycling. Vingegaard tried on a few occasions to get ride of Martinez but the young Frenchman hung tight and they went over the top with 18.5KM to go together, with a gap of 30 seconds back to the first chase group.
Martinez tried to shake Vingegaard on the descent and had put a few seconds into the Dane but he got two corners wrong in a row which allowed Vingegaard back on the wheel. There was plenty of water running across the road from the previous days' rain but everyone made it down to the valley road safely to start the final 13KM to the finish. The first chase group that included Steinhauser and Tejada had swelled to around ten riders and were 25 seconds behind. Dani Martinez was still limiting his loses well at 1 minute behind the Steinhauser group.
Vingegaard and Martinez swapped turns down the valley until 1KM to go when Vingegaard refused to come through for his pull. The chase group had closed to 20 seconds and were coming with speed. Martinez led through the final corner at 300M but both he and Vingegaard were constantly looking backwards to see how close the chase was getting. The gap was still 10 seconds as Martinez opened his sprint, pedaling as fast as he could spin his legs. Vingegaard was in the slipstream until 75M to go when he made one last push. The pair came to line and Vingegaard threw his bike forward. Martinez put his hands in the air but it was close, much closer than he had realized at the time, but it was enough to mark him as victor of the stage. Tejada sprinted in for third 7 seconds down, to take the last spot on the stage podium as well as the final few bonus seconds available.
Vingegaard owned the GC and won the week of racing by 4 minutes 23 seconds to Dani Martinez which was the largest winning margin in Paris-Nice since before the Second World War. George Steinhauser secured third overall and the White Jersey as best young rider with a deficit of 6 minutes 7 seconds to Vingegaard.