Even though you wouldn't say, looking at the current temperatures, and even though the riders might go through some episodes of rain, the time has come already for the Race to the sun, or by its official name, Paris-Nice. The 81st edition will start tomorrow, Sunday 5 March 2023, from La Verrière in the Yvelines department and the riders will have 1201 kilometers to ride before they cross the finish line of the last stage, on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.

For the first time, either in a very long time or in the history of Paris-Nice (not easy to check!), a team time trial will be on the program of Paris-Nice 2023, on the third stage where each of the 22 teams will race a time trial in the form of a triangle on the map. A particularity of this team time trial is that the times will be taken on the first rider of each team who crosses the line*.

As usual, velowire.com offers you the possibility to discover the race route on extremely detailed maps, based on Open Street Maps but also available for download in Google Earth, so that you can make - if you wish - a virtual flight over one or more stages of Paris-Nice 2023.

The participants list of Paris-Nice 2023

Below you will find the list of the starters of Paris-Nice 2023 (click on it to open it) :

The Paris-Nice 2023 race route on Open Street Maps

Let's find out right away the details of the route of Paris-Nice 2023, the 81st edition of Paris-Nice, stage by stage:

1/ Sunday, March 5, 2023 - La Verrière > La Verrière - 169.4 km

The first stage of Paris-Nice 2023 will have its start ... but also its finish in La Verrière in Yvelines. Well, that's on paper because in reality the finish will take place on the territory of the neighboring town, Le Mesnil-Saint-Denis.

The route of this stage is a bit special because the riders will complete 2 laps of a circuit that is drawn on a very restricted territory delimited by the municipalities of La Verrière, Auffargis, La Celleles-Bordes, Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse and Magny-les-Hameaux.

Towards the end of this circuit, the riders will climb the Côte de Milon-la-Chapelle (3) before they get on the Côte des 17 Tournants after passing through Chevreuse. The latter, rather than counting for the king of the mountains classification, will be the intermediate sprint of this stage. And this gives us a preview of what we'll see throughout the week: the intermediate sprints of this 81st edition of Paris-Nice are at the top of a climb or pass every time!

This stage should logically end in a bunch sprint and the winner of the stage will be leading the first general classification. He will wear the yellow and white jersey the next day, but he will also lead the points classification. However, he will not wear the green leader's jersey in this classification because he cannot wear two different distinctive jerseys and the individual general classification will therefore take precedence over the points classification. It will be the second placed rider who will wear the green jersey. And this year, this jersey will be different from the last years! Indeed, with the change of the colors of the Škoda brand, the green jersey also changes color, to adopt a darker green color (see opposite).

Below you will find the time schedule, the profile and the Open Street Maps of this stage. Click on the images to open them.

2/ Monday 6 March 2023 - Bazainville > Fontainebleau - 163.7 km

The second stage of Paris-Nice 2023 features a more classic route, starting in Bazainville. After passing through Rambouillet and Dourdan, the riders will climb the Côte des Granges-le-Roi (3) and a little further on they will already find the Côte de Méréville (3).

They then continue to Puiseaux, before turning left, towards the finish in Fontainebleau.

Below you will find the time schedule, profile and Open Street Maps for this stage. Click on the images to open them.

3/ Tuesday, March 7, 2023 - Dampierre-en-Burly > Dampierre-en-Burly - team time trial - 32.2 km

The 3rd stage of this 81st edition of Paris-Nice takes place in the form of a team time trial, and this is rather exceptional for Paris-Nice. Indeed, where previous editions regularly offered an individual time trial, the team time trial is not common on the Race to the Sun!

The starts of this team time trial in Dampierre-en-Burly will be given every 5 minutes, in reverse order of the previous day's team classification, with the exception of the team of the leader of the individual general classification, which will start last.

This time trial will also have the finish in Dampierre-en-Burly and between start and finish, the different teams will head on a triangle-shaped course to the northernmost point in Montereau and this is also where the intermediate timing point will be.

* For the winner of the stage, a special feature of this team time trial is that times will be taken on the first rider from each team to cross the line. However, this does not mean that a rider could benefit from the time of his first teammate automatically because for the individual general classification, only the riders who arrive in the same time will be credited with the time of this first rider. For late arrivals, the real time will be applied and in case of out of delay arrival (+30% compared to the time of the winner), the rider will be eliminated.

Below you will find the time schedule, the profile and the Open Street Maps of this stage. Click on the images to open them.

4/ Wednesday, March 8, 2023 - Saint-Amand-Montrond > La Loge des Gardes - 164.7 km

The 4th stage of Paris-Nice 2023 will have its start in Saint-Amand-Montrond and head southeast through Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule and Vichy before arriving on the Côte du Vernet (3) followed by the Côte du Cheval-Rigon (3).

The intermediate sprint is in this stage at the top of the Col du Beaulouis. All that will then remain is the final climb to La Loge des Gardes (1), a 6.7km climb at 7.1%.

Below you will find the time schedule, profile and Open Street Maps for this stage. Click on the images to open them.

5/ Thursday, March 9, 2023 - Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise > Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - 212.4 km

The longest stage of Paris-Nice 2023 will take place this Thursday, March 9. After the start from Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise the riders will very quickly get to climb the Côte de Coise (2) followed by the Côte de l'Aubépin (2). A little further south they will find the Côte de Trèves (3) on their way.

The intermediate sprint is much further on, at the top of the Col du Devès and continuing towards the finish the riders will find the last difficulty, the Côte d'Aleyrac (3). Difficulties that should not, however, prevent the sprinters' teams from organizing themselves to win this 5th stage in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux.

Below you'll find the time schedule, profile and Open Street Maps for this stage. Click on the images to open them.

6/ Friday, March 10, 2023 - Tourves > La Colle-sur-Loup - 197.4 km

At the start in Tourves it is a more rugged stage that awaits the riders. It will start gently but very quickly they'll get on the Côte de la Roquebrussanne (3) and after a passage through Brignoles and then Draguignan, it is the Côte des Tuilières which has a slope of 7.8% over 2.3 km but with a passage of up to 15% that awaits the riders. A little further on they then arrive on the Côte de Callian (3), quickly followed by the Côte de Cabris (2) of 5.3 km at 5.8% with a maximum at no less than 20%.

At Le Pont-du-Loup they then arrive on a circuit to be completed twice and very soon after crossing the finish line it will then remain to climb the Côte de la Colle-sur-Loup (2) of 1.8 km at 10% with a maximum of 19%. The riders will then be 28.5 km from the finish in La Colle-sur-Loup and before that they will still have the intermediate sprint in Tourette-sur-Loup (a climb containing a passage up to 12%).

Below you will find the time schedule, profile and Open Street Maps for this stage. Click on the images to open them.

7/ Saturday, March 11, 2023 - Nice > Col de la Couillole - 142.8 km

On the occasion of the 7th stage Paris-Nice 2023 will already be in Nice, for the start.

From the actual start in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, the route goes straight north to Le Broc and the riders will then go for the Côte de Tourette-du-Château (1), a 17.8 km climb at 4.6%. They then continue west to Puget-Théniers, where they will follow a very similar route but on the other side of the Var river to Tournefort, passing the intermediate sprint at Villars-sur-Var.

Heading north again then, to Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée, where they then turn west again and do so until the finish at the top of the Col de la Couillole (1), a 15.7 km climb at 7.1%.

Below you will find the time schedule, profile and Open Street Maps for this stage. Click on the images to open them.

8/ Sunday, March 12, 2023 - Nice > Nice - 118.4 km

The final stage of Paris-Nice will also see its start in Nice, this time for the shortest stage of this 81st edition of Paris-Nice (excluding the team time trial).

It will seek out the difficulties of the Nice hinterland, with the Côte de Levens (2), the Côte de Châteauneuf (2), the Côte de Berre-les-Alpes (2) and then two first category difficulties, the Côte de Peille and the Col d'Eze. Between the two we find the intermediate sprint in Eze and then finally the finish in Nice, on the Promenade des Anglais.

Below you will find the time schedule, profile and Open Street Maps for this stage. Click on the images to open them.

The Paris-Nice 2023 race route in Google Earth

Do you prefer to see the whole course of Paris-Nice 2023 on a single map? Or do you want to make a virtual flyover over the course of one or more stages of this 81st edition of Paris-Nice? All this is possible, by downloading the KMZ file below and opening it in Google Earth!

WARNING - copyright: despite the availability of this KMZ file for your own use, please note that it is strictly forbidden to reproduce the content of this KMZ file or any other possible file (including maps, profiles, KML, KMZ and other files) that make up the Paris-Nice 2023 route. These contents are indeed protected by copyright and I ask you to respect the important time spent on the creation of them. This protection therefore concerns the reproduction of the maps and other elements in any form whatsoever (in the form of maps, videos that fly over the maps or any other creation based on the content published on velowire.com).

>> Download the route of all stages of Paris-Nice 2023 in Google Earth (KMZ file)

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice | Paris-Nice 2023 | OpenStreetMap/Google Maps/Google Earth

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