{"id":1823001,"date":"2026-03-11T08:50:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T05:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1823001"},"modified":"2026-03-11T08:50:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T05:50:37","slug":"paris-nice-blown-apart-vingegaard-wins-as-ayuso-mcnulty-crash-out-in-cold-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1823001","title":{"rendered":"Paris-Nice Blown Apart: Vingegaard Wins as Ayuso, McNulty Crash Out in Cold Chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jonas Vingegaard climbed into the Paris-Nice lead in a disaster day for Juan Ayuso.<\/p>\n
Brutal cold and rain triggered a wave of crashes, including a high-speed crash involving overnight leader Ayuso with about 45km to go in Wednesday\u2019s third stage.<\/p>\n
The Spanish rider collapsed on the ground in pain after remounting his bike in a fall with about 45km to go in the first mountaintop finale at the French stage race.<\/p>\n
Ineos Grenadiers riders Oscar Onley and Kevin Vauquelin were distanced earlier in the stage, unable to capitalize on gains after nudging into the top 3 with Tuesday\u2019s TTT win.<\/p>\n
Vingegaard avoided the traps and jumped with 1km to go on the first uphill finale of the \u201cRace to the Sun\u201d was anything but.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am incredibly happy and proud to have won a stage like this. This was probably one of the hardest-fought victories of my career,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt was full gas right from the start. The conditions didn\u2019t help. I think a lot of people were very cold, but luckily that didn\u2019t bother me. I had chosen to wear a lot of clothes and that was a good decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dane doubled up, winning the stage and slipping into the leader\u2019s jersey in a stage that blew up the French stage race to open his 2026 account with a bang.<\/p>\n
12 riders DNF in brutal conditions<\/h2>\nVingegaard survived horrendous conditions to win the stage and take yellow.<\/span> (Photo: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Behind Vingegaard, the peloton was left in tatters.<\/p>\n
Ayuso was grimacing in pain and clutching his left side. He was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital, officials said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFortunately, X-rays performed at the hospital in France did not reveal any fractures for Ayuso. A further clinical assessment performed by the team doctor on-site at the team hotel has also ruled out any other serious injuries,\u201d team officials said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s another setback for Lidl-Trek, which also lost classics star Mads Pedersen to injury earlier this season.<\/p>\n
Ayuso started in the yellow leader\u2019s jersey, leading Vingegaard by 17 seconds going into the decisive stage.<\/p>\n
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Other riders crashed out, including Brandon McNulty, in a cold, messy stage. In total, 12 racers did not make it to the line.<\/p>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ayuso.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated March 12, 2026 12:03PM Jonas Vingegaard climbed into the Paris-Nice lead in a disaster day for Juan Ayuso. Brutal cold and rain triggered a wave of crashes, including a high-speed crash involving overnight leader Ayuso with about 45km to go in Wednesday\u2019s third stage. The Spanish rider collapsed on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1823001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1823001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1823001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1823001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1823001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Vingegaard\"](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2265431319-1-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")