Brandon McNulty of the US on Tuesday retained the overall lead of Paris-Nice when his UAE Team Emirates won the team time trial as aerodynamic helmets and speeding drones also hit the headlines.
Pre-race favorite Primoz Roglic of Bora–Hansgrohe dropped 54 seconds on McNulty and perhaps more crucially 30 seconds on his key rivals Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step and Egan Bernal of Ineos Grenadiers.
Evenepoel’s group were winning by a wide margin of 20 seconds at the halfway point when the skies opened on them.
Photo: AFP
“We were outclassing everyone, but the rain began to fall and there are corners in the closing part where you can gain five seconds if you go at full speed. So it wasn’t our day,” Evenepoel said.
McNulty admitted that his team “got lucky with the weather.”
McNulty leads Evenepoel by 18 seconds in the overall standings and Bernal by 20 seconds, with Paris-Nice expected to be decided on two mountainous stages at the weekend.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The giant yellow aerodynamic helmet used by Jonas Vingegaard at Italy’s Tirreno-Adriatico on Monday was used again at Paris-Nice on Tuesday by the Dane’s Team Visma, but cycling’s regulator the UCI said it would examine the matter.
“It raises a significant issue concerning the current and wider trend in time trial helmet design, which focuses more on performance than the primary function of a helmet, namely to ensure the safety of the wearer in the event of a fall,” a statement from the UCI said.
Team Visma came sixth on the day, 38 seconds off UAE Team Emirates’ winning pace, in a team time trial where teams of seven riders embarked at four-minute intervals on a 26.9km course around the central French town of Auxerre.
In another first, drones raced alongside the teams at up 65 kph, zipping along the banks of a section of the Yonne River, offering a far more pacey impression of how fast the peloton actually moves for television viewers.
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