Discover the Stage 1 highlights !
More Information on:
https://www.paris-nice.fr/
https://www.facebook.com/parisnicecourse
https://twitter.com/parisnice
https://www.instagram.com/parisnicecourse/
© Amaury Sport Organisation - www.aso.fr
More Information on:
https://www.paris-nice.fr/
https://www.facebook.com/parisnicecourse
https://twitter.com/parisnice
https://www.instagram.com/parisnicecourse/
© Amaury Sport Organisation - www.aso.fr
Catégorie
🥇
SportTranscription
00:00Welcome to Paris-Nice 2025. The 83rd edition of the Race to the Sun kicks off this Sunday in the
00:07Yvelines department. It's the first World Tour stage race of the season in Europe and it's
00:12attracted some of cycling's biggest names including Jonas Vingegaard. The two-time
00:17Tour de France winner lines up alongside the defending champion Matteo Jorgensen for Team
00:22Wismar-Lisebike, surely the favorites. Actually everything feels super similar to 12 months ago,
00:30the whole lead-in and how I felt so I really just get confidence out of that. Of course I'm here and
00:36I would like to win myself obviously but I think it also showed in the past that I'm also happy
00:41when my teammates are winning. I mean it's good to have a two-time Tour winner as your domestique.
00:47Elsewhere, Julian Alaphilippe returns to Paris-Nice for the first time since 2020 with his new team
00:54Tudor Pro Cycling. I'd like to get out and have some fun on one of the stages, perhaps a bit later
01:02in the week. But today will already give me a chance to see how I'm feeling. Getting a good
01:08result this week would definitely do me good. Despite some lumps and bumps, today's first
01:14outing is expected to end with a bunch sprints. Mads Pedersen already has a couple of wins at
01:19Paris-Nice but he knows it won't be easy to outpace the European champion Tim Melier.
01:24Yeah I like Paris-Nice, it's a good combination of climbing and speed. We are here to win and
01:31I'm the sprinter of our team here so we try to do our best and try to win today. Even we know
01:36that it's pretty hard with a guy like Tim here but you never know. Stage one starts and finishes
01:45in Le Pairay-en-Yvelines with two big loops on the menu and 156 kilometres to cover. The riders
01:51will tackle three minor climbs but they shouldn't be a problem for the sprinters. There is also no
01:56win to speak of so we can expect the fast men to battle it out for the first leader's yellow jersey.
02:06154 men set off this morning but only three of them got into the breakaway. Two debutants
02:16Alexandre de Letre from Total Energies and Samuel Fernandes of Kaya Rural and then Taco
02:22van der Horne of Antimar Chehuanti. The breakaway specialist last took part in 2023 just before a
02:28nasty crash at the Tour of Flanders. Their maximum gap was around two and a half minutes but with
02:34Lidl Trek and Soudal Quickstep pacing the peloton for Pedersen and Moliere it soon came down to
02:39under a minute. Well de Letre was the man picking up the lion's share of the day's mountains points
02:47to take the first polka dot jersey but the writing was on the wall for our three escapees. Under 30
02:53seconds the gap now and with the peloton closing fast Fernandes decided to forge on. He was followed
03:01by de Letre. Van der Horne though had had enough and he sat up. At any rate with 49 kilometers to
03:10go they were all caught and the race was all back together again. Three riders from the Ineos
03:16Grenadiers then caught up in a minor crash but no major consequences for Magnus Sheffield, Josh
03:22Tarling and Sam Watson soon back in the peloton. The riders approaching the day's third and final
03:30climb with maximum pinches of 15% and a couple of teams decided to up the tempo notably EF Education
03:37Easypost and Visma Lisa Bike. The peloton all strung out with Tudor Pro Cycling also up towards
03:43the front. Now remember Julian Alaphilippe saying this morning that he wanted to see how he was
03:50feeling. Well the Frenchman was the first man to really attack just before the top of the climb
03:55and he had Matteo Jorgensen on the wheel and it was the defending champion who actually got to
04:02the summit ahead of the two-time world champion. The American looking sharp in these early skirmishes.
04:08Well several riders tried their luck just after the climb but none of the moves stuck so a big
04:15group reformed before the intermediate sprint with six, four and two bonus seconds up for grabs for
04:21the first three men over the line. Santiago Buetrago looking to go from distance and Jorgensen
04:27was up there again but it was actually Jonathan Narvaez now of UAE who took the maximum haul.
04:33Well three men then countered and got a small gap. Matteo Trentin, Josh Tarling and Matthias
04:44Schjelmozer. A strong trio indeed and they still had around ten seconds with three kilometers to
04:50go before the sprint teams really lit the afterburners. They were caught a couple of kilometers
04:55out and it was then over to the fast men for the first sprint contest of this Paris-Nice.
05:04Fred Wright starts to move forward on the right-hand side and this is a really late moment
05:09to try and bring up Matteo Scovacar. Don't forget they're going to have that left-hand turn with 700
05:14meters to go. There is Scotson who's trying to bring forward Demar. Where is Demar? Is he a little
05:20bit too far back? There comes the turn with 650 meters to go. Three and a half hours of racing
05:28is complete and we're racing into Le Parais. We've had a really active finale. Riders Jossling
05:37fighting for position currently. Now starting to move forward is the team of Sudal Quick-Step with
05:43a couple of riders. Fred Wright still there. There starts to move forward Fedorov. There is
05:48Milano who's starting to move forward for UAE Team Emirates. Now on the front is Wright. Wright for
05:53Bahrain-Victoria as he's trying to go for glory here. Now Merlier goes on the left-hand side.
05:59Tim Merlier is challenging alongside RKB&B Hotels. Merlier wins stage one into Le Parais.
06:05Well in the end Tim Merlier made it look easy as he notched already his fifth win of 2025.
06:16The European champion adding to his victory on the opening stage of Paris-Nice two years ago
06:21and proving he'll be the man to beat in the sprints this week. Do you consider yourself as
06:26the best sprinter of the peloton at this period? Well it's not up to me to say things like this.
06:32It's up to you guys to say it or don't say it. I just try to win as much as possible and to
06:43take my opportunities. Well Merlier taking his opportunity to land career win number 55
06:50ahead of Arnaud Dumas and Alberto Dainese. Mads Pedersen finished down in 12th place.
06:56So Merlier takes the first yellow jersey of this 83rd edition. He leads by four seconds
07:00from Dumas and Narváez with Dainese and Jorgensen rounding out the top five. Merlier also the early
07:07leader in the points classification although Dumas will wear the green jersey on his behalf tomorrow.
07:14De Lettra took six points on the climbs today so he is our first king of the mountains
07:18by just two points from his fellow escapee Fernandez.
07:22Finally Sheffield who took two bonus seconds tops the youth classification ahead of Yevgeny Fedorov.
07:28Stage two will take us south from Montesson to Belgrade and it should be another one for
07:32the sprinters. Join us again for that on Monday and thanks for watching.