Soudal Quick-Step produces strong Paris-Nice TTT

Soudal Quick-Step produces strong Paris-Nice TTT

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.

 

Photo credit: ©Alex Broadway / Getty Images

Race details

1 Brandon McNulty
UAE Team Emirates
8:48:53
2 Finn Fisher-Black
UAE Team Emirates
0:00
3 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
0:00
4 Jay Vine
UAE Team Emirates
0:00
5 Michael Matthews
Team Jayco AlUla
0:15
6 Chris Harper
Team Jayco AlUla
0:15
7 Luke Plapp
Team Jayco AlUla
0:15
8 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:18
9 Owain Doull
EF Education - EasyPost
0:20
10 Egan Bernal Gómez
INEOS Grenadiers
0:20
12 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
0:22
20 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
0:40
34 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
1:06
52 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
2:00
97 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
5:34
103 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
6:06
1 Laurence Pithie
Groupama - FDJ
42 pt
2 Mads Pedersen
Lidl - Trek
38 pt
3 Danny van Poppel
BORA - hansgrohe
28 pt
4 Olav Kooij
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
25 pt
5 Arvid de Kleijn
Tudor Pro Cycling Team
25 pt
6 Dylan Groenewegen
Team Jayco AlUla
20 pt
7 Nils Eekhoff
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
18 pt
8 Madis Mihkels
Intermarché - Wanty
16 pt
9 Gerben Thijssen
Intermarché - Wanty
16 pt
10 Michael Matthews
Team Jayco AlUla
14 pt
18 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
6 pt
1 Mathieu Burgaudeau
TotalEnergies
15 pt
2 Jonas Rutsch
EF Education - EasyPost
13 pt
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
6 pt
4 Primož Roglič
BORA - hansgrohe
4 pt
5 Pierre Latour
TotalEnergies
4 pt
6 Finn Fisher-Black
UAE Team Emirates
2 pt
7 Stefan Bissegger
EF Education - EasyPost
2 pt
8 Lilian Calmejane
Intermarché - Wanty
1 pt
9 Nils Politt
UAE Team Emirates
1 pt
1 Finn Fisher-Black
UAE Team Emirates
8:48:53
2 Luke Plapp
Team Jayco AlUla
0:15
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:18
4 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
0:22
5 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
0:22
6 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:32
7 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
0:42
8 Laurence Pithie
Groupama - FDJ
0:51
9 Ben Turner
INEOS Grenadiers
1:03
10 Ewen Costiou
1:12
1 UAE Team Emirates 26:26:39
2 Team Jayco AlUla 0:45
3 EF Education - EasyPost 1:03
4 INEOS Grenadiers 1:06
5 Soudal Quick-Step 1:24
6 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 1:54
7 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 2:03
8 Bahrain - Victorious 2:24
9 Cofidis 2:46
10 BORA - hansgrohe 2:59

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