DISCUSSION | Paris-Nice 2 & Tirreno-Adriatico 1 - Lack of wind or intention? Disorganization, crashes, Ganna & the rest

This Monday we had on the road the second stage of Paris-Nice and the opening stage of Tirreno-Adriatico 2026. In France, the peloton faced a road stage that finished as expected, with the outcome decided in a bunch sprint, while in Italy we had an individual time trial to determine the first leader of the race.

The second stage of the Race to the Sun started almost immediately with the breakaway of the day. Initially made up of four riders, within a few dozen kilometres it was reduced to two, with KOM leader Casper Pedersen and Mathis Le Berre from TotalEnergies.

Casper Pedersen won all the KOM points available during the day. After the final climb of the stage, Lotto-Intermarché moved to the front of the peloton to set the pace and quickly caught the breakaway, preparing things for the intermediate sprint with bonus seconds in Formont.

There was some action for the bonus seconds, with Vito Braet (6s), Juan Ayuso (4s) and Luke Lamperti (2s) putting valuable seconds in their pocket that could become important later in the race.

After the sprint, things calmed down again and the average speed stayed around 42 km/h. With about 30 km to go, we saw some sprinters involved in a crash, and although they were shaken up, everyone managed to get back on their bikes.

With around 20 km to the finish, Daan Hoole from Decathlon decided to break the monotony and attacked from the peloton, gaining a small advantage that kept increasing with every kilometre. Another crash happened with 15 km to go at the back of the peloton, while the bunch increased the pace in the chase, but the attacker kept gaining time.

Without an organised chase, Daan Hoole entered the final 5 km with around 20 seconds on the peloton, with the sprinters’ teams clearly lacking the strength and numbers to close the gap.

Hoole’s adventure ended inside the final kilometre, and with another sprint without a proper lead-out and a lot of chaos - including a crash in the final corner - it was XDS Astana who made the most of the day, with Max Kanter winning the stage, while Laurence Pithie and Jasper Stuyven completed the podium.

A short and very fast ITT would decide the first leader and the first yellow jersey of the race.

The first rider to set a real benchmark and sit in the hot seat was Alan Hatherly from Team Jayco AlUla, stopping the clock at 12:38m.

At the intermediate time check at kilometre 5, several riders were faster than the South African, including Isaac del Toro, Jan Christen, Brandon Rivera, Felix Grobschartner and Sam Welsford.

Thymen Arensman raised the bar with a strong time of 12:30, and one of the surprises of the day was Jonathan Milan, who clocked 12:37m to finish fifth on the stage.

The most anticipated moments of the ITT were still to come, with several contenders for the overall victory also aiming for the stage win.

Among the GC favourites, Primoz Roglic delivered a solid time trial to finish seventh, limiting his losses on terrain suited to pure time trial specialists.

Antonio Tiberi also performed well and finished ninth, while Isaac del Toro completed the top 10. Richard Carapaz had a much more difficult ride, losing significant time to the best riders and already finding himself under pressure in the general classification.

The big winner of the day was INEOS Grenadiers rider Filippo Ganna. With an average speed of over 56 km/h, Ganna destroyed the competition with a time of 12:08m, leaving his closest rival 22 seconds behind.

It was the fourth victory for the INEOS Grenadiers rider in the opening ITT of Tirreno-Adriatico in the last five years. Simply dominant.

About Paris–Nice, there isn’t much to write. If there had been wind, the action could have been very different. We had many exposed sections, prone to echelons, a finish with lots of traffic islands and technical turns, with the tarmac in poor condition… a menu that could have brought excitement to the day. Instead, the wind never showed up, the peloton decided to take the race calmly until the final kilometres, and that was that.

Casper Pedersen collected the maximum KOM points and will ride for at least two more days in the polka-dot jersey. In the final sprint we once again had a crash in the last kilometre, and without proper trains to work it out. It was a chaotic sprint, without a real lead-out, and the XDS Astana German rider Max Kanter won, although it could just as well have been any other rider.

It was a sleepy stage, typical of a transition day in a Grand Tour. Does the peloton really need days like this? Do spectators and cycling fans really need stages as monotonous as this one? It’s getting boring… yet the organisers keep repeating this dull pattern, year after year.

At Tirreno–Adriatico we had a superb Ganna. Eleven kilometres at an average speed of over 56 km/h, leaving his closest rival trailing in the distance.

Even more interesting was the battle against the clock among the riders who will fight for the general classification. Antonio Tiberi, Primož Roglič, Isaac Del Toro, Matteo Jorgenson, Giulio Pellizzari among others, performed well, delivered strong efforts and, as is often the case, kept that specific fight very balanced.

A noteworthy point, because I had already seen something similar this year at the Volta ao Algarve, and today it happened again.

A titanic fight between two roosters for one perch, INEOS Grenadiers and Lidl-Trek. Today the British team placed three riders in the top four, while their American counterpart finished 3rd and 5th on the day. In other words, the first five positions were taken by only two teams. This is a clear demonstration of strength in this discipline.

Let tomorrow’s stage come, because with the quality names present in the race, I’m expecting plenty of action and excitement this week.

Nothing much happening on the Paris-Nice front. The highlight of the day for me was more what happened away from the peloton, as we've seen a shift from Visma.

Jonas Vingegaard called out the dangerous roads on stage 1, and today they were rather absent from the fights for positioning, trusting they could close gaps if there are crashes if they keep their block united.

Dare I say, it could work, they definitely will spend less energy that's for sure. If it will actually work when it comes to not losing time by consistently using that tactic in the flat stages remains to be seen. But if they do it and it works, then its possible other teams follow along, and there are less teams fighting for position which could ultimately make some races a bit safer.

Juan Ayuso took 4 seconds in bonus seconds, which is actually meaningful as the race lacks a proper mountain stage where gaps can be created. This could help him jump to the yellow jersey ahead of Vingegaard after the TTT which can then be important later in the race. He won the Algarve the same way, so it's understandable.

As to the spring, what shows is really just how modest the field is. No top sprinters, but even the second-line sprinters were absent from the front today. Max Kanter took a deserved win, and a nice World Tour one for Astana, but it's very notable how he won ahead of non-sprinters, in a pan-flat stage and finale.

At Tirreno-Adriatico Filippo Ganna was always expected to win, no surprise there, even though he said ahead of the race his form was perhaps not as good. INEOS had a stellar day and showed that they remain a powerhouse at least in the time trials, the last bastion they held on to - with Thymen Arensman being the strongest of the GC contenders, with a surprising second place.

The gaps were bigger than expected. Primoz Roglic put in a very nice time at the finish line, but anyone who's gained time can't be overly optimistic as Isaac del Toro rode to 10th on the day and didn't give much space to his rivals, making him the man to beat