Freezing cold and snow make Queen Stage of Paris-Nice brutal: Storer wins, Jorgenson keeps the lead

The peloton has been dealing with terrible weather for the past three days. After the two hilly stages in biting cold, Friday's stage was also tricky and became a spectacle of wind. Visma | Lease a Bike, with help from INEOS Grenadiers, put the entire peloton on the defensive and gained two minutes on their competitors. Extreme conditions also characterized the seventh stage. The queen stage to Auron was shortened, leaving the riders only 109 kilometers on the program.

The Col de la Colmiane and the Côte du Belvédère were skipped because they were considered too dangerous. However, it could still be challenging because there was a lot of snow at the top of the finishing climb: the riders would arrive at wintery scenes. This was a disadvantage for many riders, but others saw an opportunity. Plenty of teams had devious plans at the start of the race that they put into action immediately after the start.

Fifteen riders broke away, including Josh Tarling (INEOS Grenadiers), Friday's number two, Iván Romeo (Movistar), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Neilson Powless, Gregor Steinhauser (EF Education - EasyPost) and the Tudor duo Julian Alaphilippe and Michael Storer. The latter was still within four minutes of GC leader Matteo Jorgenson, making him the most dangerous name in the breakaway. They had started in the bright sunshine on the south coast, but as the race progressed, it grew increasingly grey. Eventually, it also began to rain, which was a sign of things to come.

It immediately caused chaos because Stefan Küng, who was in the leading group, crashed. Fortunately, he could get back on his feet and return to the front, but Mattias Skjelmose was less fortunate. The Dane, third in the GC, crashed hard over a traffic island and had to abandon the race. He was in a lot of pain and lay there for a long time; it was a significant setback for the race. But the race continued, and the strong leading group fought back bravely against Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates attacks.

The riders struggled in the cold and rain, but it only worsened. By the time they reached the finish line, it had started to snow. And the closer the riders got to the finish line, the worse the conditions became. About five kilometers before the start of the final climb, riders began to put on their jackets and gloves. At the start of the climb towards Auron, the gap was still suitable for the leading group: they still had a lead of almost two minutes. But the peloton was picking up the pace.

Things were wide open at the back, and the gap quickly closed. The breakaway riders started to attack: Alaphilippe was the first to try his luck after doing the hard work for Storer. The Australian then accelerated, and only Schmid could follow. Everything was quiet in the peloton, so it seemed the two would be allowed to fight it out for the win. Storer later managed to drop the Swiss champion and rode away solo.

Behind him, the battle between the favorites began with 3 kilometers to go, and the frustrated Lenny Martinez went first. He didn't get away but later did, together with Felix Gall. The Austrian was too strong for the small French rider, who was forced to let him go. The rest of the favorites kept a low profile, with Lipowitz gaining a few seconds on Jorgenson. Jorgenson did, however, keep the yellow jersey. Thymen Arensman did well, partly due to Skjelmose's withdrawal: he moved up to third spot in the GC.