"I don't have a crystal ball so I can't predict anything" - Matteo Jorgenson shrugs pressure off ahead of key Paris-Nice day

Stage 8 of Paris-Nice will be a rainy, difficult and very explosive day of racing. Matteo Jorgenson is only 4 seconds away from the yellow jersey of Brandon McNulty and is perhaps the biggest favourite to win the French race; but he starts the day off by shrugging off the pressure that he naturally feels.

“A lot can happen today. The good news is that I know the stage well. I also watched the ride on TV many times," Jorgenson told CyclingPro.net this morning at the start of the stage. A resident of the area, he knows the climbs quite well and did a superb ride last year where on these climbs he rode with Jonas Vingegaard, Simon Yates and David Gaudu.

The same kind of performance this year could earn him the overall win as he stands very close to his compatriot McNulty. But the threat exists from behind as well, the likes of Mattias Skjelmose and Remco Evenepoel are just half a minute behind the two - and several other big figures are also on the watch. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader faces a challenge that could change his career.

“This is perhaps the most beautiful race of the year. It will be a great spectacle. I expect the unexpected," he says. Tactically it will be hard to manage, and the 24-year old admits that he does not know how the stage will pan out. "I don't have a crystal ball so I can't predict anything. I'm just going to do my best and try to respond to everything.”