Veni, vidi, Visma: Vingegaard and Jorgenson hand out first uppercut in Paris-Nice

Before the race, much was said and written about the team time trial format in Paris-Nice. Normally, the time of the fourth or fifth rider counts, but for the third year in a row, A.S.O. has opted for a time trial in which the time of each rider counts. That will also happen at the start of the 2026 Tour de France in Barcelona so that this stage could be seen as the last test in preparation for that challenge.

The date was circled in red on the teams' calendars. "I'm very nervous. I've never been as nervous for a TTT as this one. It will be crucial," Victor Campenaerts of Visma | Lease a Bike told Sporza in advance. "At training camp, we worked on this with the whole team. The riders went to the track separately for the equipment. We held one last training session on Saturday."

The team time trial of Paris-Nice 2025—starting on the Nevers Magny-Cours circuit—was 28.4 kilometers long and took place mostly on sloping roads, which Tudor was the first team to experience. The favorites soon got going, with Jayco AlUla and INEOS Grenadiers.

That gave us our first indication of the race. The Australians - who lost Luke Durbridge on Monday - clocked 30:41, with Michael Matthews crossing the line first. INEOS saw Joshua Tarling and Bob Jungels lead the climb, followed by Tobias Foss, Magnus Sheffield, and Thymen Arensman. They were eighteen seconds short of Jayco AlUla's time.

Meanwhile, UAE Emirates-XRG and Visma | Lease a Bike also started quite early after two sprint stages, giving us insight into the situation early on in the stage. At the first intermediate point, UAE Emirates-XRG had already lost a lot of time, and shadow leader Pavel Sivakov had to drop out prematurely. At that point, the Dutch team had already gone eight seconds under Jayco AlUla's time. EF Education-EasyPost and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe were also doing well.

Mattias Skjelmose rode solo for Lidl-Trek and set a good time, after which it was time for the yellow-and-blacks to take their turn. Victor Campenaerts and Bart Lemmen rode until the final kilometer and then left it to the two team leaders, Vingegaard and Jorgenson. Those two were fourteen seconds faster than Jayco AlUla, which meant Jorgenson had already taken an advance on the yellow leader's jersey.

The Dutch formation ended up about half a minute ahead of UAE-Emirates XRG, Lidl-Trek, EF Education-EasyPost, and INEOS Grenadiers. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe ended up in the same group, after which it was only a matter of time before Merlier's Soudal Quick-Step arrived. Nobody improved the time at the finish, so Visma | Lease a Bike won this stage.