In many ways, it was the same old story at both Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico last week. At the former, Jonas Vingegaard romped to overall victory, to claim yet another stage race title for Visma-Lease a Bike. And at the latter, last year’s centurions UAE Team Emirates XRG claimed the title through their rising star Isaac del Toro.
The dominance of these two teams in the world of cycling during the 2020s is especially reflected in their records at these two races. In fact, every single edition of both have been won by a rider from one of these two teams since 2022, with Visma-Lease a Bike accounting for four Paris-Nice and two Tirreno-Adriatico titles in that time, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG claiming one at Paris-Nice and three at Tirreno-Adriatico.
However, what was interesting about their two victories this year was how they were not demonstrations of team superiority. At neither race were Visma-Lease a Bike or UAE Team Emirates XRG the strongest team in the race, being upstaged by others that have trailed them in recent years. You could even say that Vingegaard and Del Toro won in spite of, rather than because of, their teams.
Read more: Poise, power, pérdida - Isaac del Toro's rise to cycling stardom
During the stage four of Paris-Nice, when wind, rain and crashes swept through the peloton to cause carnage, Vingegaard was left completely isolated. He had no Visma teammates with him in the five-man lead group that emerged at the front of the race. Instead, it was up to him to hang on to the group, then launch an attack on the final climb to solo to the finish. He received more help the following stage, but still rode the final 20km alone after a solo attack to win the stage by a huge margin of over two minutes all but sealing overall victory.
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At Tirreno-Adriatico, UAE Team Emirates-XRG were totally dependent on Del Toro to win the race, lacking the secondary GC hopeful they usually bring to stage races. And as a result Del Toro was under pressure, having to set the pace up the decisive stage two uphill finish, and thus set Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) for the stage win. He found himself having to fend off attacks from other GC rivals in the coming stages, and it was only through his own superiority on the climbs, and the severity of the back-to-back summit finishes on stages five and six, that he was able to take overall victory.
Instead, a third team emerged as the strongest across the two races: Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe. It was them who split the race to pieces on stage four at Paris-Nice, isolating Vingegaard against four of their riders Nico Denz, Mick van Dijke, his irrepressible twin Tim van Dijke, and GC leader Dani Martínez. Such were their strength that Martínez ended up finishing second place on GC despite barely putting his nose to the wind, and even when he crashed on the final stage, his teammates Laurence Pithie and Aleksandr Vlasov were able to pace him all the way to the finish.
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The team also led the GC for a day at Tirreno-Adriatico through Giulio Pellizzari, after the young Italian managed to follow Del Toro and Van der Poel on stage two’s final climb, then picked up a couple of bonus seconds by sprinting for second-place behind Van der Poel on stage four. Unlike UAE, Red Bull-Bora Hasgrohe had two men for the GC with Primož Roglič alongside Pellizzari, and they ended this stage with Pellizzari in first and Roglič in third. Though Del Toro’s quality proved too much in the closing stages, and Pellizzari lost some bonus seconds on the final stage to fall to third behind Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), it was still a very strong showing from the team.
Pellizzari finished a strong third at Tirreno (Image: Tim de Waele)
The signs from these races were that Red-Bull Bora Hangroge are starting to close the gap between themselves and the UAE Team Emirates-XRG / Visma-Lease a Bike duopoly. That’s the plan, and the team have invested heavily to do so, but last year they were still clearly some way behind still; as reflected in their Grand Tour performances, across which they put only one rider on the podium, while the other two placed first and second in each of them. Now it seems their roster is improving: young Pellizzari took another leap by claiming his first World Tour stage race podium, Dani Martínez started to show his form from a few years ago by placing runner-up at Paris-Nice, and Roglič proved there’s still life in the old dog yet by placing fifth at Tirreno.
All this, and we haven’t even mentioned one Remco Evenepoel. While Vingegaard and Del Toro stole the limelight this week, and Van der Poel picked up at Tirreno where he left from crushing the opposition at Omloop Nieuwsblad, it was Evenepoel who started the season in the hottest form, and still nobody has overtaken his season tally of six wins, picked up at the January Spanish classics, Volta Comunitat Valencian and the time trial stage of the UAE Tour. More than any of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's recruits, Evenepoel was the marquee signing, and this start suggests that he’s in an environment in which he can flourish.
And potentially upset the UAE / Visma dominance at the Tour de France, and challenge for the yellow jersey? That’s what Evenepoel’s ambition is, and a major part of his reasoning for leaving Soudal Quick-Step for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe this season. Both Tadej Pogačar and Vingegaard as individuals, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike as teams, have looked untouchable in those races these past few years, but that might be starting to change. With the likes of Roglič, Martínez, Pellizzari and Jai Hindley to pick from for mountain support (not to mention last year’s podium finisher Florian Lipowitz), and the likes of Pithie, Denz, Danny van Poppel and the Van Dijke brothers for other terrain, Evenepoel is set to be better supported than ever before.
Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG might have triumphed once again this week, but they’re up against a genuine new rival in Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe.
Cover image: Tim de Waele / Getty
