Paris-Nice

A major reshuffling of the Paris-Nice general classification took place Tuesday afternoon, which took place around Auxerre, the city that hosted a stage finish for the first time since 1980, when Jan Raas won a bunch sprint at the end of a flat stage.

Now, a 29.6km team time trial was on the cards, held over a course containing two climbs, a fast downhill and a hard uphill finish. Soudal Quick-Step was among the last teams to roll down the ramp and Mattia Cattaneo, Remco Evenepoel, Yves Lampaert, Gianni Moscon, Casper Pedersen, Ilan Van Wilder and Louis Vervaeke had a flying start, quickly finding their rhythm.

Our team came through the race’s sole checkpoint in 18:55, which put them at the top of the provisional standings by a large margin, but then, everything changed in the final four kilometers. Heavy rain started, and this impacted the ride and the result of the Wolfpack, especially as the closing part of the stage contained many technical corners. Despite their best efforts, our riders conceded time and ended up fourth in the final classification, a result which will see Remco start the hard stage four to Mont Brouilly in eighth place.

“The time trial went quite ok, the guys had a good start which you could see at the split. Unfortunately, we lost quite a lot until the end. We were a bit surprised and we need to see what happened, but what is clear is that the riders didn’t slow down, so it’s possible that the weather played a significant role in today’s outcome”, said sports director Tom Steels.

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