A day full of emotions was the one that took place this Tuesday in the traditional cycling competition, Paris-Nice, which in 2023 brings together the two best cyclists in the world who have taken on this challenge as great preparation for the Tour de France. This, in addition to being measured after several months after the vibrant clash experienced in the ‘grande boucle’ last year and which left Jonas Vingegaard the winner.
Under this scenario, the third stage took place this Tuesday with a team time trial that left Jumbo Visma, Vingegaard’s team, as the great winner. The reigning winner of the Tour de France won by a second ahead of EF Education and four seconds ahead of Simon Yates’ Australian team Jayco-Alula.
For its part, Tadej Pogacar’s Team UAE finished fifth, 23 seconds behind, a lesser evil for a formation inferior to Jumbo-Visma in this specialty.
However, beyond what was offered by the Dutch team, the one who stole all the looks and praise was his staunch rival, Tadej Pogacar, who went around the world with an impressive ‘sprint’ that even put his first totter place.
On the last meters of the route, the Slovenian champion displayed his power in packing to accelerate the pace in the final part of the route and leave the time of the UAE in 34 minutes and 18 seconds, that is to say, a difference of 23 seconds with compared to Jumbo. It should be noted that in this time trial, the team’s time is that of the first runner to reach the finish line.
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In Europe they hallucinated with their current level, and already give it as one of the great favorites to stay with one of the greats this season. “He is an animal”, they said in Spain after his performance.
That’s how it was for the Colombians
A peculiarity of the time trial of the third day of Paris-Nice, decisive for the aspirations of Daniel Felipe Martínez, was that although it was by teams, for the general classification, the individual time of each rider was taken into account, which was a novelty.
The time of Daniel Felipe Martínez, who in the 2022 edition of Paris Nice occupied third place, surpassed only by Simon Yates and Primoz Roglic, was 34 minutes 44 seconds.
The ‘beetle’ lost 44.58 seconds compared to Simon Yates, whose team, Jayco, was not the favorite in the time trial, but who ended up leading the stage. Likewise, he lost 25 seconds with Tadej Pogacar, with whom he will have to battle hand in hand in the three mountain stages of the race, and 49 seconds with Jonas Vingegaard, the winner of the day with the Jumbo-Visma.
Stage 4 of Paris-Nice will have three mountain passes, two of the third category and one of the first category, at the end of the day: It will be a 6.7 km climb with a gradient of 7.1%, according to the organization of the race.
General classification Paris – Nice
1. MAGNUS CORT NIELSEN – EF EDUCATION – EASYPOST07 – 07H53′ 41′’-B : 4′’
2. NATHAN VAN HOOYDONCK – JUMBO-VISMA + 00H 00′ 01′’
3. MICHAEL MATTHEWS -TEAM JAYCO ALULA – + 00H 00′ 03′’
4. JAN TRATNIK6JUMBO- VISMA07 + 00H 00′ 03′’-
5. JONAS VINGEGAARD – JUMBO-VISMA07 + 00H 00′ 03′’
6. SIMON PHILIP YATES -TEAM JAYCO ALULA07+ 00H 00′ 07′’-
7. NEILSON POWLESS – EF EDUCATION – EASYPOST07 + 00H 00′ 08′’-
8. TOBIAS SVENDSEN FOSS – JUMBO-VISMA07 + 00H 00′ 08′’-
9. KELLAND O’BRIEN -TEAM JAYCO ALULA07 + 00H 00′ 11′’-
10. TADEJ POGAČAR – UAE TEAM EMIRATES07 + 00H 00′ 14′’
11. DANIEL FELIPE MARTINEZ POVEDA – INEOS GRENADIERS + 00H 00′ 51′’