Jonas Vingegaard dominates Paris–Nice with three jerseys but misses out on stage-win hat-trick
CyclingSunday, 15 March 2026 at 16:53
The eighth stage of Paris-Nice was won by Lenny Martinez. The young Frenchman from Bahrain Victorious kept up impressively when Jonas Vingegaard launched his expected attack in the final stretch. The duo powered through the final stretch together, before Martinez proved just a tad faster in the sprint. Vingegaard was going all out for a hat trick of stage wins, but had to settle for the yellow, green, and polka-dot jerseys.
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It was quite an eventful week in France. Thanks to the terrible weather, one stage turned into a legendary experience, while another became a shortened fiasco. Regardless, Jonas Vingegaard proved to be the strongest, with two stage wins and a commanding lead in the general classification. Would the Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike be up for claiming his third in the final stage?
The eighth stage around Nice was certainly no walk in the park, with plenty of elevation gain and steep climbs. The climbing wouldn’t start until later in the day, though. Before that, five riders seized their chance: Tim Marsman (Alpecin-Premier Tech), who had already made a mark on Saturday’s shortened stage all by himself, was back in the mix. He was joined by Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Fabio Van den Bossche (Soudal Quick-Step), Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), and Alexandre Delettre (TotalEnergies).
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When the road started to climb, things got serious. The pace was fast on the Col de la Porte, and the true climbers immediately went on the attack. The early breakaway didn’t stand a chance, as a trio of featherweights took a small lead. Of those, Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) proved to be the strongest: he went solo and reached the top of the Col de la Porte alone.
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Second serious crash: Daniel Felipe Martínez
The group behind him also split up. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) set off in pursuit, but by then the peloton had thinned out considerably to about thirty riders. All the GC contenders were in that group, right up until 50 kilometers from the finish. Daniel Felipe Martínez, the number two in the general classification, took a hard fall. It looked bad, but fortunately he was able to continue.
He had to make up a minute and a half on the other favorites, who were going very hard on the Côte de Chateauneuf-Vieilleville and gradually thinning out. Thanks to hard work by INEOS Grenadiers, they quickly closed in on Paret-Peintre, but Visma | Lease a Bike, with Victor Campenaerts and Bruno Armirail, soon took control again.
Due to the high pace, Martínez, who received help from his teammates, struggled to close the gap: he had to fear for his second-place position. In the valley leading to the final climb, however, he closed the gap again, but Campenaerts accelerated on the steep Côte du Linguador, the decisive climb of the day. It was Vingegaard who then accelerated, but Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) seemed to keep up fairly easily.
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Lenny Martinez holds his own against Vingegaard
The young Frenchman was the only rider on the yellow jersey holder’s wheel, but Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), Kévin Vauquelin (INEOS Grenadiers), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana), and Mathys Rondel (Tudor) weren’t too far behind. Vingegaard didn’t sit still for a moment, but he still couldn’t shake off his fellow escapee before the top of the climb. There, the gap was half a minute to the chasers, who had been joined by more reinforcements.
Over the top of the Côte du Linguador, Vingegaard picked up the mountain points, securing the polka-dot jersey in addition to the yellow jersey. And the green points jersey was still within reach. What remained was an intermediate sprint in Les Cappan in Nice, followed by a flat finish in the southern French city. At the intermediate sprint, Vingegaard picked up 6 points, but what would the finish bring?
Neither of the two men at the front gave the impression that they wanted to break away, and they seemed confident in a two-man sprint. The chasing group of six was also 40 seconds behind, so there was plenty of time to gamble. In the end, Vingegaard didn’t give anything away and sprinted hard for a hat trick of stage wins. Martinez, however, was just a bit faster and prevented that record from happening.
With the help of Aleksandr Vlasov, Martínez retained his second place in the general classification, meaning Georg Steinhauser finished this Paris-Nice in third place. INEOS Grenadiers, with Vauquelin, missed the podium. Thanks to his strong finish, Vingegaard will take home three jerseys for Visma | Lease a Bike.
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Results of stage 8 Paris-Nice 2026
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
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Latest Comments
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