Editorial

It was an exceptional winter. A sudden wave of cold weather and snow swept the country, totally unexpected at such a late date, covering the spring buds in snowflakes. Before it gave way to spring, March 2005 was not a month for a cyclist to be out on the road.

Wearing a mantle of white from the Hauts-de-Seine to the Rhône Valley, the Race to the Sun plotted its course towards the Riviera with the active help of state and local highway departments and all the staff of Amaury Sport Organisation who efficiently pitched in. In the cold and the ice, Paris-Nice thus consecrated the first success of an American in Nice, the likeable Bobby Julich, and each day provided a quality stagewinner, from Voigt to Valverde, not forgetting Boonen whose star was on the rise and continued to climb in the sky up to the Madrid rainbow.

After a few appetizing pack escapades in all corners of the world – from Australia to Malaysia, Qatar to California – Paris-Nice will again this year be marking, as it has for over seventy years, the real start to the season. The course lends itself to daring exploits and is open to those with a taste for invention… La Croix de Chaubouret, Le Corobin, Le Tanneron and la Porte or Eze passes will enable the best to fight it out, while leaving room for suspense right up to the finishing line.

And here's to more clement skies this year…

Christian PRUDHOMME

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