After yesterday's prologue, the first stage of Paris-Nice will take place today between Condé-sur-Vesgre and Vendôme over a distance of 198 kilometers.

The last part of these 198 kilometers will take place on a circuit which the riders will do two times and this circuit contains two sand roads. Thanks to Jérémy Roy and Kinomap, you can discover these sand roads before the race gets there because the rider of the FDJ team, who doesn't participate in Paris-Nice 2016, got out on his bike and filmed the final circuit!

Two sand roads will be on the programme of this first stage, which doesn't please to everyone as we can see in this interview that the RTBF did with Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep) who declared: It's a pity to see this in Paris-Nice. But apparently it's a new thing for races to go one century back in time. If I wanted to ride on sand roads I would have continued cyclo cross. It's not a one day race like the Strade Bianche where the riders choose to start the race. It's Paris-Nice, a WorldTour race, with riders who want to get a good position in the general classification and who don't want to lose time. The final part of the stage will be nervous. That's a pity..

The two sand roads are the chemin de Tourteline, 1,350 m long, and the chemin du Tertre de la Motte, 750 m long and containg the only climb of this stage, the Côte du chemin du Tertre de la Motte (3rd category, 1 km @ 3.7%). They'll do them twice and the second time the end of the second sans road will be at only 3.5 kilometers from the finish line in the Avenue Gérard Yvon.

The Chemin de Tourteline

Let's wait no longer to discover the Chemin de Tourteline first, on top of Jérémy Roy's bike:

The chemin du Tertre de la Motte

The second sand road, the chemin du Tertre de la Motte, will partly be climbing:

The complete final circuit

If you'd like to see the whole final circuit, that's possible thanks to Jérémy Roy's complete video:


And you, what do you think of the presence of sand roads in the final part of a Paris-Nice stage which would otherwise have a guaranteed bunch sprint finish?

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice | Paris-Nice 2016

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