Race analysis, favourites, and predictions for Paris-Nice 2022

Paris-Nice is one of the one-week races with the most history, as we can see in a list of winners full of big names: Louison Bobet, Jaques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Raymond Poulidor, Sean Kelly, Miguel Indurain, Laurent Jalabert and Alberto Contador are some of the great champions who have won the race, which this year reaches its 80th edition.

Route

The route is made up of 8 stages, of which the first three seem suitable for sprinters, although they are not absolutely flat and there may be surprises. The individual time trial on day 4 and the queen stage on the seventh day, with the finish at the top of Col de Turini (15.2 km at 7.2%), are expected to be decisive for the general classification, while the rest of the stages ( 5, 6 and 8) have undulating profiles that promise exciting cycling days.

Favorites

Primož Roglič (1200) has a pending history with the race, since last year he lost it due to a crash on the last day when he had the victory in his pocket. The great beneficiary of Roglič's misfortune was Maximilian Schachmann (1000), who will be in the start line to defend the title for the second consecutive year (he also won the 2020 edition). Other contenders for victory could be João Almeida (1200), Alexandr Vlasov (1200), Ethan Hayter (1000), Adam Yates (1000), David Gaudu (1000) or Nairo Quintana (600). For his part, Wout Van Aert (1200) has the qualities to challenge for the general classification, but it is likely that he will simply go for stage wins in the sprints and the time trial, and the rest of the time will be dedicated to working for Roglič.

For sprint arrivals, apart from Van Aert, Jasper Philipsen (1200), Sam Bennet (1200), Mads Pedersen (1000), Fabio Jakobsen (800), Bryan Coquard (600) or Dylan Groenewegen (600) are a priori the fastest men.