Defending champion Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) has said he "didn’t have a good feeling at all" as he lost the leader’s jersey on stage 4 of Paris-Nice after becoming cold and wet in a series of confusing stops and restarts due to poor weather.
Wednesday’s fourth stage was temporarily stopped after 120km due to hail, and then restarted under neutral conditions before racing eventually resumed properly, but Jorgenson said communication was lacking, leaving some riders unaware when they were meant to start riding again.
"There was no explanation at all," the American told cameras from ITV and Cycling Pro Net after the stage, which saw his teammate Jonas Vingegaard take the lead and João Almeida (UAE Emirates-XRG) win the stage.
"They stopped us and all the cars came up and we started putting on different clothes like more jackets because it was really raining hard. We really stopped at the coldest moment I think."
The problem, it appeared, then came from the fact that some riders, including Jorgenson, were not aware the race was about to restart, neutrally behind the lead car.
"Suddenly when I was at the back of the [team] car I saw the red car with a bunch of riders behind it just take off, no explanation, so I jumped on my bike and chased for 10k and then when we got back they had stopped again. Then they decided to restart us, so it was really like big ups and downs and a lot for the body to take in.
"I just pushed for like 10k just to get warm again, I didn't even know if we were racing."
Racing started properly just before the final, 6.7km climb to La Loge des Gardes, where Jorgenson and Vingegaard were alone after losing their teammates amidst the confusion of the stops and starts.
Vingegaard proved to be the stronger of the Visma co-leaders, attacking in the finale and just being beaten to the line by Almeida but moving into the GC ahead of a slightly less firing Jorgenson.
"I don't know if it affected me more than it affected others but I just had a rollercoaster of an internal body state," Jorgenson said of the cold.
"It was just very difficult to get my body temperature back up. I had the feeling I was breathing super deep, just felt like a really stressful rollercoaster for the body. On the last climb I fought with the legs I had, but I didn't really have a good feeling at all."
Despite some disappointment in his performance, it was far from a bad day for Jorgenson and his team, with the yellow jersey moving onto the shoulders of his teammate, and the American only dropping to second overall, five seconds down.
"If you take away the conditions of our legs on the climb, and our performances, I think we tactically played it pretty well," he said. "Jonas was really smart and actually got his head back in the game more than I did, it looked like, which was great to see. Just in the end João was the strongest one and clearly the warmest in the group and was super strong so congrats to him."
Despite missing out on the stage win, Visma-Lease a Bike remain in a good position at Paris-Nice, and have four more stages to right any wrongs and defend their victory from 2024.
