Matteo Jorgenson confirms himself among the best by winning the Paris-Nice 2024

In his last campaigns with Movistar Team, the American Matteo Jorgenson was aiming to be a great cyclist. The jump to Visma-Lease a Bike this winter has also meant a leap in quality that has led him to shine in the first classics of the season and to establish himself with a great victory in this Paris-Nice 2024.

Remco Evenepoel can't match the power of Visma-Lease a Bike

Visma-Lease a Bike continues to dominate wherever they go. If at the beginning of the cobblestone classics season they achieved a clean sweep, with the first two one-week World Tour laps they repeated the script both in Tirreno-Adriatico and in this Paris-Nice 2024 where, despite presenting a team that was supposedly less powerful, they also ended up achieving victory thanks to an inspired Matteo Jorgenson who only confirms everything he had been pointing out in recent seasons.

The week started with a leg-breaking stage where it was hard to believe that anyone expected anything other than a sprint finish. However, a small climb towards the end and the competitiveness that Remco Evenepoel always shows gave us a tremendously intense stage finish that allowed us to have a first glimpse of the form of the contenders for the final yellow jersey of this Paris-Nice 2024. In the end, there was no bloodshed and in the sprint finish, Olav Kooij left Mads Pedersen with a bitter taste in his mouth.

The second stage, with the top riders saving energy for the team time trial the next day, had no major significance other than enjoying another sprint finish that, in this case, was won by Tudor Arvin de Kleijn.

The team time trial on the third day was undoubtedly one of the decisive stages and Paris-Nice repeated the format from the previous year with the rule that the team's time was marked by the first rider to cross the finish line, leading to an interesting day where we saw different tactics. From teams burning out their riders as if they were rocket stages to finishing with their leader alone, to those trying to maintain the strength of the team as much as possible.

A time trial where UAE Team Emirates, just like the day before in the individual time trial in Tirreno-Adriatico, showed themselves as the strongest team, beating Jayco-AlUla by 15 seconds, 22 seconds ahead of a very lackluster INEOS Grenadiers throughout the week and whose leader, Carlos Rodríguez, was far from the level expected of him, although Egan Bernal continues to progress and managed to stay with the best until the last two days. The same time was lost by Remco Evenepoel's Soudal-QuickStep. Meanwhile, Visma-Lease a Bike, despite their new helmets, could only manage 6th place, with a loss of 38 seconds.

A bad time trial for other teams with contenders for victory such as Bahrain-Victorious with Pello Bilbao and Santiago Buitrago, who lost 42 seconds; or Bora-Hansgrohe, who lost 54 seconds. An unexpected Brandon McNulty took the lead in the race, and in the end, he fought hard in the subsequent stages, even reaching the last day with a chance of winning the race.

The next day, in a stage with a summit finish at Mont Brouilly, it was Santiago Buitrago who managed to break free from the surveillance situation in the final part, achieving a meritorious stage win that allowed him to recover from the time lost in the previous day's time trial and move up to second place behind Luke Plapp, who finished second in the stage ahead of the favorites group, taking the lead from McNulty. Special mention to Egan Bernal who continues to consolidate his return to the highest level and to Mattias Skejelmose who, without making too much noise, also showed his credentials for the general classification.

After a completely uneventful stage towards Sisteron, which ended in a sprint favoring Olav Kooij, who once again denied Mads Pedersen a victory, we reached the final three stages where the weather in this Paris-Nice would complicate things for the peloton.

In the first of them, on the way to Le Colle sur Loup, with a medium mountain route, hostilities resumed among the favorites to take the yellow jersey. However, it was an attack by Matteo Jorgenson, at the right moment, that kept a tough battle going for several kilometers with the main group of favorites led by Remco Evenepoel, and where, as is often the case in these situations, the indecision in closing a gap of just 15 seconds made the advantage at the finish line shoot up to the 52 seconds that the trio formed by Mattias Skjelmose, Brandon McNulty, who thus regained the lead, and Matteo Jorgenson achieved, with a stage victory that fell into the hands of the Norwegian from Lidl-Trek.

The stage that was expected to be the queen stage of this Paris-Nice 2024 underwent a route change due to the extremely harsh weather conditions that covered the planned ascents to Colmiane and the finish in Aauron with a single-climb stage to La Madonne d'Utelle in a stage of just over 100 kilometers. With this perspective, the day brought few changes in a finish where the only remarkable thing was the attempt and failure of Remco Evenepoel, and where Egan Bernal began to struggle as the week wore on and lost a handful of seconds. The stage was won by Vlasov, who took advantage of the vigilance among the favorites.

Nevertheless, the race remained open for the typical final stage in the surroundings of Nice with Col d'Eze always playing a leading role. In a stage where Remco Evenepoel broke away from the peloton 50 kilometers from the finish, his efforts only served to eliminate the leader Brandon McNulty, who went ahead in the company of Vlasov and Jorgenson.

The Belgian rider did not have the strength to continue, and in the final part, he acknowledged the strength of the American from Visma-Lease a Bike and settled for a simple stage victory after Vlasov faltered in the final climb. Brandon McNulty defended his position fiercely, managing to cut enough time from Vlasov and keeping an eye on Skjelmose to at least retain third place on the final podium, while Remco Evenepoel settled for a second place that surely feels like a disappointment.

Overall Classification Paris-Nice 2024

1. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) 27h50'23''
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +30''
3. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +1'47''
4. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +2'22''
5. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +2'57''
6. Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) +3'08''
7. Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) +4'03''
8. Wilco Kelderrman (Visma-Lease a Bike) +4'04''
9. Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +4'35''
10. Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe) +5'33''