Visma-Lease a Bike powered to victory in stage three’s team time trial at Paris-Nice on Tuesday and took over the overall race lead through Matteo Jorgenson as a result.
The Dutch team set a time of 30:26.96, averaging 56.2 kmph across the 28.4 kilometre course from Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours to Nevers. Jayco-AlUla were next best, finishing 14 seconds down on Visma, with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe completing the top three a further ten seconds back.
Victory for Visma meant that last year’s Paris-Nice winner, Jorgenson, moved into the yellow jersey as race leader, taking over from Soudal Quick-Step’s Tim Merlier. The Belgian sprinter won the opening two stages of the race.
Speaking after Visma came across the finish line, Jorgenson said he felt relieved that everything had gone to plan for the team ahead of Wednesday’s uphill finish.
“You know before the race that it’s already going to be the most stressful day, so it’s just good to have it done and feel like we did the plan as perfectly as we could,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Jayco-AlUla looked good with a time of 30:41.29, which would have put Ben O’Connor close to the yellow jersey, but couldn't match Visma.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe were then the next two GC-focused squads to finish, with the latter coming in 24 seconds down on Visma, and the former a further 17 seconds back. Lidl-Trek finished fourth, 29 seconds behind the winning time.
Visma’s win was a big statement of intent with the race moving towards the halfway point at La Loges Des Garde on stage four, a finish which the team will also be eyeing up as another moment to make their mark ahead of the final weekend in Nice. As well as Jorgenson, the team has Jonas Vingegaard in second place, six seconds behind his teammate.
"I think the execution today was as near perfect as it could be," Vingegaard explained post-race. "We just did the perfect team time trial today. We made no mistakes and we went so fast the whole way. Everyone was so strong, all my teammates were incredible. So far it looks really promising for us."
"I'm feeling pretty well actually," he added when asked how he felt ahead of the first summit finish of the week. "The legs are feeling better and better, hopefully tomorrow as well I will feel good. For now it looks like we’re in a really good position in the GC."
Results
2025 Paris-Nice stage 3, Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours > Nevers (28km)
1. Visma-Lease a Bike, in 30:26
2. Jayco-AlUla, +15s
3. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +25s
4. Lidl-Trek, +30s
5. Ineos Grenadiers, +33s
6. EF Education-EasyPost, +34s
7. Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +39s
8. UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +42s
9. Movistar, +49s
10. Soudal Quick-Step, +51s
General classification after stage three
1. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 8:13:52
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +6s
3. Michael Matthews (Aus) Jayco-AlUla, +21s
4. Ben O'Connor (Aus) Jayco-AlUla, at same time
5. Aleksandr Vlasov Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +31s
6. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe,
7. Mauro Schmid (Swi) Jayco-AlUla, at same time
8. Ben Zwiehoff (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +34s
9. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +36s
10. Magnus Sheffield (USA) Ineos Grenadiers, +38s
