Paris-Nice queen stage could see last-minute changes caused by a fearsome weather forecast

This year's edition of Paris-Nice is packed with stages with potential to completely shake up the race, as we've witnessed on Wednesday. But if you asked organizers before the race started, they'd probably pinpoint the penultimate stage with a summit finish to ski station Auron as a key point towards the general classification of the race.

However that stage, for a second year in a row, is in danger of last-minute adjustments of the course. The stage to Auron was shortened last year due to adverse weather conditions. That time, the summit finish to Auron remained unchanged with Michael Storer as a stage winner. However the first half of the stage was notably shortened.

And the same danger is hanging above the organizers' heads also this week with weather forecasts predicting temperatures as low as -2°C in Auron, and heavy snow showers.

It almost seems like a curse of this ski resort. Auron was already set to host a stage finish in 2024, but the stage had to be completely re-altered due to adverse weather conditions and thus finished on La Madone d'Utelle. Back then, Aleksandr Vlasov won with a brave attack as the climb was hidden behind a thick fog.

The riders are seemingly braced for a potential alteration on the route. Ahead of the stage 3 team time trial, Juan Ayuso highlighted the importance of the stage, with the context that the weekend’s stages could be hindered by weather conditions.

"Also, now we’re seeing that maybe in Nice there’s really bad weather, so we will see what we can and what we can’t race," Ayuso told CyclingProNet ahead of stage 2. "So I think tomorrow [stage 3] has, I don’t know what percentage, but I think more than 70% of the general classification can be decided tomorrow [stage 3]."

At that time, he had no idea yet that whatever happens on stage 7 won't be of much relevance to him, as the Spaniard abandoned Paris-Nice following a heavy crash on stage 4.