Jumbo Visma won the TTT stage 3 at Paris Nice with its star turn, Jonas Vingegaard, and his arch rival, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), now just seconds apart overall after the crucial stage.
Had Pogačar not focused on collecting time bonuses at the intermediate sprints on the first two stages, he would now trail Vingegaard by 23 seconds instead of the more manageable 11 seconds he is now behind the Tour de France champion.
It was a disappointing day for Ineos Grenadiers; the team that once excelled at this event finishing a lowly 10th and losing 48 seconds to the winners today. That time will now make it next to impossible for Dani Martínez or Pavel Sivakov to put up a genuine challenge for victory.
Jumbo Visma won the 32.2km team test around Dampierre-en-Burly by just one second from EF Education-EasyPost, with long-time leaders Team Jayco AlUla in 3rd at four seconds. Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates was 5th at 23 seconds, with Sam Bennett's and Ryan Mullen's Bora-hansgrohe putting in a solid ride for 6th at 25 seconds.
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The stage result puts Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) into the yellow jersey by just one second from Nathan Van Hooydonck (Jumbo-Visma). Cort was 3rd on yesterday's stage, taking a four-second time bonus, and that prove crucial to securing the yellow jersey today.
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🏁 @JumboVismaRoad en termine en 33'55'' et déloge @GreenEDGEteam de la première place !
🏁 @JumboVismaRoad finish in 33'55'' and unseat @GreenEDGEteam from first place!#ParisNice pic.twitter.com/Ch1zayhgX3— Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) March 7, 2023
Danish rider Cort spent two days in yellow and won two stages at Volta ao Algarve last month and is clearly in great form this season after winning stage 10 at the Tour de France last year on his fifth long-range breakaway ride of that race.
Ironically, Cort today took yellow from fellow Dane Mads Pedersen, the Trek-Segafredo rider who won yesterday's stage. While Pedersen bridged a 53-year gap since a Danish cyclist last had the race lead at Paris-Nice, Denmark now has its second leader in two days.
However, Cort's stint in the maillot jaune is likely to be short-lived considering what's on the menu for the riders tomorrow on stage 4. The 164.7km stage from Saint-Amand-Montrond to the uphill finish at La Loge des Gardes is a cat 1 of some 6.8km with an average gradient of seven per cent.
Hopefully we will see fireworks between Pogačar, Vingegaard and some of the other general classification riders on that finishing climb tomorrow. Interestingly, after today's TTT result, Pogačar could win the race based on time bonuses available at the finishes - if he wins tomorrow, for example - and at the intermediate sprints.
It means even though Vingegaard is now ahead of Pogačar overall, it is the Dane who really needs to drop his Slovenian rival if he wants to win this race by the time it ends in Nice on Sunday.
