Cycling Feature: The 70th edition of the Paris-Nice
The 70th edition of the Paris-Nice is scheduled from March 4-11, 2012, and all the World Tour teams are trying hard to claim the second World Tour event race of the season.
The top level teams started their 2012 season at the Australian race, Santos Tour Down Under and Team RadioShack-Nissan stole the show with the top overall lead after the final general classifications.
Team Sky Procycling, Team Movistar, Team Rabobank and Team Omega Pharma-QuickStep claimed the second, third, fourth and fifth positions in the respective order.
Australian cyclist Simon Gerrans claimed the overall spot at the race and helped the World Tour debutant side, Team Green Edge with its first overall success.
Paris-Nice is the second race at the UCI World Tour calendar. It is scheduled from March 4th to 11th and the winner will be awarded with 100 UCI points.
The second and the third place finishers will bag 80 and 70 points in the respective order, while 60, 50, 40,30,20,10 and 4 points will be granted to the cyclists who stand fourth place onwards.
German cyclist Tony Martin claimed the previous edition of the race and his second overall position at the Volta ao Algarve is a clear indication that Team Omega Pharma cyclist will put up a big fight to defend his title this year.
He is currently holding the 49th overall position after the stage 5 classifications and not the overall contender of the race any more.
Andreas Kloden was another favourite before the start of the race but the German has now dropped 5 minutes and 13 seconds on the race leader.
Bradley Wiggins was the third big name before the race and he has lived up to the expectations. The British professional cyclist is leading the overall classifications after the fifth stage.
He is leading Team Sky at the race and the side is hopeful that Wiggins will continue his dominance to claim the top podium spot during the French race.
Wiggins briefed, "It's the first big WorldTour race of the season in Europe and we'll just look to continue the momentum - that's the goal. It's great to be part of it and I'm just looking forward to Paris-Nice now and my next few races after that".
A total number of 18 World Tour will ride the 70th edition of the French race and the five home teams have finalised their squad for the event.
Team Europcar: Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn), Giovanni Bernaudeau (Fra), Sébastien Chavanel (Fra), Damien Gaudin (Fra), Vincent Jérôme (Fra), Davide Malacarne (Ita), Alexandre Pichot (Fra), Thomas Voeckler (Fra)
AG2R-La Mondiale: Maxime Bouet (Fra), Mikaël Cherel (Fra), Hubert Dupont (Fra), Blel Kadri (Fra), Sébastien Minard (Fra), Anthony Ravard (Fra), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra), Nicolas Roche (Irl)
FDJ-Big Mat: Sandy Casar (Fra), Pierrick Fédrigo (Fra), Anthony Geslin (Fra), Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr), Arnold Jeannesson (Fra), Rémi Pauriol (Fra), Cédric Pineau (Fra), Jeremy Roy (Fra)
Team Saur-Sojasun: Jérôme Coppel (Fra), Jimmy Engoulvent (Fra), Jérémie Galland (Fra), Jonathan Hivert (Fra), David Le Lay (Fra), William Levarlet (Fra), Julien Simon (Fra), Yannick Talabardon (Fra)
Team Cofidis: Mickaël Buffaz (Fra), Rémy Di Grégorio (Fra), Samuel Dumoulin (Fra), Jan Ghyselinck (Bel), Luis Angel Mate (Spa), David Moncoutié (Fra), Rein Taaramae (Est), Tristan Valentin (Fra)
The four professional continental teams invited through the wild card entries include three French and one Dutch side.
Team Cofidis, Team Europcar, Team Saur-Sojasun (all French) and Team Project 1t4i (Dutch) have been invited to ride the French race.
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