Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) came out of the recent UAE Tour without a win, in a stacked sprinters' field. But he has another chance at Paris-Nice, which starts on Sunday. The 32-year-old Irishman, with five stage wins in this race in his palmares, will have Ryan Mullen and Danny van Poppel as lead-out men.
And though the sprinting line-up is not as good - certainly not as packed - as it was in the Middle East last week - there are still plenty of talented sprinters in the field. They too will have their lead-out men and will be hunting stage victories.
The riders likely to challenge Bennett, whose sprinting form looked good in UAE despite the lack of a victory, include: Mads Pedersen (Trek Segafredo), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny), Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
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Those riders will have several chances at a stage win, if their teams can tame the breakaways and master the crosswinds. It's a very hard Paris-Nice course this year, while the weather is often cold and windy. But a look through the course definitely throws up multiple sprint chances.
The opening stage on Sunday, some 169.4km starting and finishing in La Verrière, is not flat, though it could still finish in a sprint from a peloton. However, there is a plateau just before the finish and with crosswinds likely, the race could split in that final section, if it hasn't broken up earlier in the day.
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The second stage is 163.7km from Bazainville to Fontainebleau and is effectively plan flat. In that sense, it looks like a nailed-on bunch sprint, though the usual crosswinds warning on such stages in Paris-Nice definitely applies here.
The third stage is a TTT - 32.2km into Dampierre-en-Burly. The stage, which marks a return to the TTT to Paris-Nice after a break since the 1990s, takes the time of the first rider to finish, which should mix things up a little. Stage 4 - some 164.7km to La Loge des Gardes - is a summit finish and the GC men are likely to dominate on the 6.8km finishing ascent, averaging seven per cent gradient.
The next chance for sprinters should be stage 5, next Thursday, which is 212.4km from Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise to Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux. There is a cat 3 climb, some 4.6km, crested 20km from the finish, but depending on how the stage is raced, it still looks like one for the sprinters.
Stage 6 - some 197.4km from Tourves to La Colle-sur-Loup - features three cat 2 climbs, though the last of those is 30km from the finish. It could be a day for a breakaway or for the sprinters who can climb, as Bennett can on a good day.
Stage 7 is a 142.9km race with a summit finish at Col de la Couillole. That 15.8km finishing climb, averaging 7.3 gradient, is definitely one for the GC men. The final day of racing on Sunday week, 118.4km starting and finishing in Nice, features five climbs. They include Col d’Eze as the final ascent before the drop down into the finish in Nice. The course will be one for the climbers.
