Paris-Nice kicks off Sunday

By staff and wire reports

Paris-Nice, the first major stage race of the season, gets under way on Sunday without 2006 champion Floyd Landis and the Unibet.com team.

The seven-stage, 1260km Race to the Sun will start with a 4.7km prologue around the Parisian suburb of Issy-Les-Moulineaux . Belgium’s Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic)) and Italian rival Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) are expected to compete for the sprint finishes in the early stages.

The riders will then make their way towards the south coast, with the seventh and final 129km stage being held in and around Nice on March 18.

Being a short but demanding race, Paris-Nice should favor the riders who are already on form early in the season, such as Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel), who recently won the Tour of California.

However, nothing will be for certain, as previous Paris-Nice races have proven; the race often goes down to the wire. Last year, American rider Landis won by just nine seconds over Spain’s Patxi Vila.

Landis will not be on hand to defend his title. Nor will Unibet.com, whose exclusion from the event led to a war of words between race organizer ASO and the UCI that put the season-opening event in doubt.

Cycling was on the verge of a major split after the major race organizers had all but cut ties with the UCI’s ProTour format and threatened to create a rival racing circuit.

The UCI called for a boycott of Paris-Nice, and vowed to fine and sanction any team that showed up for the traditional season-opener.

Cooler heads prevailed after a last-ditch meeting Monday in Brussels. The UCI agreed to include only 18 of its 20 ProTour teams at events organized by ASO, RCS and Unipublic — which means that Astana and Unibet.com will have to bank on wild-card invitations to those races — and conceded that the major organizers are not legally bound to the ProTour concept during the course of the temporary agreement.

Major players agreed to meet once a month to discuss a long-term solution and have a workable agreement ready by September 21.

The deal did not satisfy the Belgian-Swedish team Unibet.com, which took its case to the French courts, without success.

“We began a procedure at the Nanterre (Paris region) court to try to be included in the Paris-Nice race, but the judge threw it out,” said team spokesman Manuel De Smet.

UCI chief Pat McQuaid offered little sympathy for Unibet.com, despite having taken the team’s side.

“You have to respect the decision of the courts,” said McQuaid.

Paris-Nice 2006: Top 10 overall
1. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, 31:54:41
2. Paxti Vila (Sp), Lampre, at 0:09
3. Antonio Colom (Sp), Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears, at 1:05
4. Samuel Sanchez (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 1:13
5. Frank Schleck (Lux), CSC, at 1:22
6. José Azevedo (P), Discovery Channel Pro Cycling, at 1:35
7. Erik Dekker (Nl), Rabobank, at 1:38
8. Pietro Caucchioli (I), Crédit Agricole, at 1:39
9. José Luis Rubiera (Sp), Discovery Channel
10. Chris Horner (USA), Davitamon-Lotto, at 1:43

FILED UNDER: Road TAGS: Paris-Nice