"At 14 years old I came over to Belgium with Brandon and we were roommates" - Matteo Jorgenson & Brandon McNulty leading American charge at Paris-Nice

Despite narrowly missing out on the stage win yesterday, Matteo Jorgenson continues to impress in the early stages of his Team Visma | Lease a Bike career. The American currently sits second in the GC at Paris-Nice 2024, 23 seconds down with two stages to go.

"I think it's a pretty open race," he assesses in a pre-stage 7 interview. "No one's been able to control things. Every mountain day and even yesterday that wasn't a mountain day, it was pretty uncontrollable. There can be a lot of potential winners today."

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PREVIEW | Paris-Nice 2024 stage 7 - Madone d'Utelle summit finish a key stage; McNulty forced to defend himself from Jorgenson, Skjelmose, Evenepoel and Roglic

Attacking from the group of GC contenders alongside eventual stage winner Mattias Skjelmose and new Maillot Jaune, Brandon McNulty on Friday, Jorgenson has firmly placed himself in contention for the overall race win, putting time into both Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic among others. "There's a few guys I need to watch. For sure Remco, he's close. Skjelmose, he's not far now and although Primoz is pretty far, he's Primoz Roglic so I have to watch him," Jorgenson assesses.

With American duo Jorgenson and McNulty leading the way at Paris-Nice, a brilliant photo of the pair from back in the day was posted to Jorgenson's official Instagram story overnight. "We go back quite a way. We had the same coach as juniors and we did a lot of trips together," he recalls warmly. "At 14 years old I came over to Belgium with Brandon and we were roommates together. I basically got my first European experiences with him and we both saw that pro cycling is possible together."

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"It's obvious that I need to make time up" - Remco Evenepoel to go on the attack in attempt to secure Paris-Nice 2024 victory

"After the rain comes the sun" - Smiling Primoz Roglic still upbeat at Paris-Nice ahead of potentially pivotal stage 7