Meteorology, chaos in the race, and decisions of the UCI

Again, the application of the extreme weather protocol causes controversy and division in the peloton after the neutralization of part of the Paris-Nice stage due to a strong hailstorm and the subsequent resumption of the race.

Not everyone is happy with the rain in Paris-Nice

First stage with a summit finish of the 2025 edition of Paris-Nice, 50 kilometers to go when it started raining heavily and turned into a hard hailstorm. On this occasion, completely justified, the referee judges decide to stop the race while the cyclists seek shelter and dry clothes in their team cars while most remain in the rain.

The controversy arises afterwards when, after the storm, the judges decide to resume the race which causes criticism from many cyclists, including Jonas Vingegaard himself. In fact, many had already settled in their team cars while another good number of cyclists, led by Movistar and with a young Iván Romeo leading the complaints, were preparing to continue the race.

Iván Romeo(@ivanromeo_03), the spokesperson for those affected in today's stage#ParisNice

LIVE: https://t.co/3mpabNUnON pic.twitter.com/1laFUdfgSM

— Teledeporte (@teledeporte) March 12, 2025

This time, those who wanted to race ended up prevailing over those who wanted to stop the stage, unlike what happened a little over a month ago during the Mallorca Challenge, where, with less extreme weather conditions, only the ProTour team cyclists wanted to continue while the decision of the big teams prevailed and the race was stopped with the tremendous anger of its organizer.

These controversies repeat cyclically because the application of the extreme weather protocol does not establish precise parameters of how it should be done, which ultimately results in grotesque spectacles that do not give a good image to cycling.

"Safety car" protocol officially debuts in cycling.#ParisNice pic.twitter.com/Ldaqzoc2fo

— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) March 12, 2025

It is true that nowadays we will not see images like those of the 1988 Giro d'Italia stage when they crossed the Gavia in a tremendous blizzard, however, what has been seen in recent times, from the spectator's point of view, directly undermines the epic of this sport when races have been suspended clearly unjustifiably as it happened last year in O Gran Camiño, when one of the stages was canceled and moments later the sun came out shining.

Yesterday in Paris-Nice, those protesting the resumption argued that the stop had left them cold and some even talk about hypothermia, but weren't the conditions the same for those who wanted to compete and were able to do so without a problem?

Also, the serious damage to the race organizer is not taken into account. Not so much in the case of a major event like Paris-Nice, but for a race like the aforementioned O Gran Camiño or the Mallorca Challenge, not being able to justify the investment made by their sponsors may mean the final blow that prevents the necessary investment to hold the race the following year.

Conflicting opinions, cyclists who increasingly tolerate less the miseries inherent in cycling, organizers who have made an effort to carry out the race, and a UCI that proposes rules that are totally open to interpretation make it a controversy that repeats itself every time bad weather makes its appearance on the road. By the way, for Saturday, the queen stage of Paris-Nice with a finish in Auron, the forecast is again for heavy rain, we will see what happens.