photo credits @ WTFK
Todays’ team time trial of Paris–Nice 2026 produced an exhilarating battle for the stage victory in Pouilly‑sur‑Loire, with Ineos Grenadiers making the most of their power and tactics to dominate the 23.5 km course, propelling Kévin Vauquelin to the finish in 26’40’’, while Oscar Onley crossed the line just one second behind.
Meanwhile, Lidl–Trek’s Juan Ayuso finished a further two seconds back. Having earned four bonus seconds in yesterday’s stage 2, Ayuso is the new overall leader of the race, and the first Spaniard to wear the yellow‑and‑white jersey since Luis Leon Sánchez in 2018.
Race Highlights
Picnic PostNL was the first team on course, rapidly followed by Jayco AlUla, who set the first benchmark of 27’37’’ (51.0km/h). But the Australian team was later overtaken by Groupama-FDJ United, who completed the course at an average speed of 51.5 km/h.
Next, UAE Team Emirates XRG’s Brandon McNulty and Marc Soler finished as a duo with an advantage of 4 seconds. However, their performance is not enough to overtake Ineos.
From there, Visma-Lease a Bike improved upon the UAE’s time by 21 seconds, with the Dutch team finishing with four riders that were led by Jonas Vingegaard alongside Bruno Armirail, Davide Piganzoli and Victor Campenaerts. Yet, despite a promising performance, it was not enough to match that of Decathlon-CMA CGM, who set the best intermediate time at km 14, with only Daan Hoole riding solo for the last five kilometers. However, Hoole’s impressive effort is not enough to resist Lidl-Trek.
The American team made the most of its many powerhouses – Mathias Vacek, Soren Kragh Andersen and Jakob Söderqvist, propelling Ayuso to the finish with a time of 26’42’’, 9 seconds ahead of Decathlon CMA CGM.
Still, Lidl-Trek’s impressive performance was not enough the dethrone Ineos Grenadiers, which clocked an average speed of 52.9 km/h.
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