Stefan Bissegger Wins Paris-Nice Stage 3, Moves Into Race Lead
Stefan Bissegger, the 22-year-old Swiss riding for EF Education – Nippo, claimed stage honors at Paris-Nice this morning to move into the overall race lead.
With the first two stages finishing in bunch sprints, today’s 14.4 kilometer individual time trial was always going to present an opportunity for a strong time trialist to catapult themselves to the top of the standings.
Today’s stage ended up producing an incredibly close finish. Bissegger got the better of Frenchman Rémi Cavagna by less than a second.
🇨🇭@aka_muni passe devant 🇫🇷@remicav pour moins d'une seconde ! ⏱
🇨🇭@aka_muni beats 🇫🇷@remicav for less than a second! ⏱#ParisNice pic.twitter.com/6h0isyNRxP
— Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) March 9, 2021
The victory was Bissegger’s first at the WorldTour level. However, he has impressed in WorldTour time trials in the past. Bissegger finished second in a 13 km ITT at the UAE Tour earlier this season, losing out only to World Champion Filippo Ganna. Last season, he finished third in a 17 km ITT at the BinckBank Tour. At the time, the event was his first WorldTour race.
Current General Classification
BISSEGGER TAKES STAGE 3 AND OVERALL LEAD🥇 😝
Not bad for your first full season as a pro, @aka_muni. Congrats on an incredible performance today at Paris-Nice 🇫🇷🤜 pic.twitter.com/BFBNSpOlws
— EF Pro Cycling (@EFprocycling) March 9, 2021
- Stefan Bissegger – 8:37:11
- Rémi Cavagna – 0:00
- Primož Roglič – 0:06
- Brandon McNulty – 0:09
- Michael Matthews – 0:09
- Søren Kragh Andersen – 0:10
- Mads Pedersen – 0:12
- Christophe Laporte – 0:13
- Dylan van Baarle – 0:14
- Yves Lampaert – 0:15
Due to the nature of tomorrow’s stage profile, we should see another GC shakeup in the immediate future.
Considering the amount of climbing on the menu, guys like Primož Roglič and Brandon McNulty are in a great position. Other legitimate GC contenders who have not lost much time include Steven Kruijswijk, Max Schachmann, Mattia Cattaneo and Aleksandr Vlasov.
The heavier riders like Bissegger and Cavagna are likely to slide down the GC during tomorrow’s stage. Still, it is an impressive achievement for Bissegger to get the chance to lead a race as prestigious as Paris-Nice so early in his career.
After today’s stage, EF team manager Jonathan Vaughters tweeted out some information that helps to explain Bissegger’s success.
For tech nerds: Bissegger has the lowest CdA of any rider we know of.
— Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) March 9, 2021
For those who are unfamiliar with some of cycling’s more technical terms, CdA refers to the drag coefficient of a rider. The lower your CdA, the more aerodynamic you are. And the more aerodynamic your positioning is, the faster you go.
Having a low CdA is especially important for time trials. In this discipline, you can save a significant number of watts by working to adopt a more aerodynamic position.
In Conclusion
Going forward, there are a number of riders who could grab victory at Paris-Nice in 2021.
With that being said, the safest bet is probably Primož Roglič. The Slovenian has a very strong team around him, and the profiles of the remaining GC days suit him very well. Additionally, Roglič looked strong in the ITT today, suggesting that his early season form is there.
With five stages of Paris-Nice remaining and Tirreno-Adriatico getting underway tomorrow, there is no shortage of exciting stage racing action at the moment.
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