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Paris-Nice Opens ProTour Calendar
Bobby Julich won the opening prologue of the 2006 Paris-Nice race.
Team CSC will bring an experienced squad to Sunday’s prologue of the eight-day Paris-Nice that opens the 2007 ProTour calendar.
Headlined by 2005 champion Bobby Julich and an in-form Fränk Schleck, Team CSC will have two candidates for the final podium when the so-called “Race to the Sun” concludes along France’s Cote d’Azur in Nice on March 18.
“It’s quite an interesting route and I think we have a very strong lineup. From my point of view, we have two possible captains in Fränk Schlek and Bobby Julich as well as a number of riders who can provide them with the necessary backup along the way and maybe even make some attacks,” explained Team CSC sport director Alain Gallopin. “With the experience that Bobby has with this race and the form that Fränk demonstrated in Valencia, we ought to be very much in competition for the jersey.”
Team CSC has traditionally done well in Europe’s first major stage race, with overall victories in the 2004 and 2005 editions with ex-team rider Jörg Jaksche and Julich, respectively. Last year, Julich won the opening prologue and Schleck finished fifth overall, heralding his breakthrough victory at the Amstel Gold Race a few weeks later.
This year’s route follows a similar pattern of recent editions. The race opens with a short but technical opening prologue in the Parisian suburb of Issy-les Moulineaux near the headquarters of the race organizer ASO, the same company that puts on the Tour de France.
Two long stages push south across the wind-swept farmland south of Paris that will provide a good chance for the sprinter stars to help Team CSC take control of the race.
Things get interesting in a pair of stages traversing the hilly Massif Central. After fighting through snow the past few years, the route skirts further south in hopes of better weather.
The short but decisive climbing finish at the finish of the 169.5 kilometer fourth stage from Maurs to Mende should produce a clear candidate for overall victory.
“Anything can happen during the mountain stages in Massif Central and I imagine that fourth stage to Mende will give us a taste of the end result in Nice,” Gallopin suggests. “It finishes in a very steep three-kilometer climb, which should be good for Fränk and Bobby.”
After a short transfer into the Rhone Valley, the race will push into warmer climes with a pair of challenging transition stages across Provence in hilly, unpredictable stages that provide fertile ground for dangerous attacks.
The race concludes with a spectacular climbing stage up the famous Col d’Eze overlooking Nice and Monte Carlo along France’s sparkling Cote d’Azur. The finale along the Promenade des Anglais along Nice’s seafront is one of cycling’s most famous sites.
“I’m expecting the stages in the final weekend to be the ones to decide the race,” Gallopin said. “Regardless, it will be extremely difficult to control the race ahead of the last stages, but I think the sprinter teams will attempt to keep the peloton together till then anyway.”
65th Paris-Nice (March 11-18):
Prologue, March 11: Issy-les Moulineaux, 4.7km (ITT)
Stage 1, March 12: Cloyes-sur-le-Loir to Buzancais, 186km
Stage 2, March 13: Vatan to Limoges, 177km
Stage 3, March 14: Limoges to Maurs, 215.5km
Stage 4, March 15: Maurs to Mende, 169.5km
Stage 5, March 16: Sorgues to Manosque, 178km
Stage 6, March 17: Brignoles to Cannes, 200km
Stage 7, March 18: Nice-Nice, 129.5km
Team CSC for Paris-Nice:
Bobby Julich (2005 champion), Kasper Klostergaard, Alexandr Kolobnev, Luke Roberts, Andy Schleck, Fränk Schleck, Christian Vande Velde and Dave Zabriskie.
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