Oliver Naesen is part of Decathlon CMA CGM Team and at the time being, the team is in the center of the spotlight in cycling. That is because of Paul Seixas, the sport's new star, who is already being actively pursued by UAE Team Emirates - XRG, who could have Seixas join Tadej Pogacar. "UAE will p...

Tiesj Benoot will be one of the main absentees of this year's Classics season. While others are either competing at Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, or giving their preparations some final touches, the Belgian is forced to watch action from sidelines. The 31-year-old's preparation was disrupted by a b...

Some steep climbs await in the finish.Loire : Ineos won the stage, their first team time trial win since the Tour of Britain in 2020 which says something about the teams reconstruction and something about the dwindling amount of these races too.Lidl-Trek were two seconds behind but because Juan Ayuso took bonus seconds from placing on an intermediate sprint on Monday hes in the yellow jersey.Decathlon-CMA CGM were third, pipping Visma-LAB. UAE were eighth. Once again the format provided something interesting to talk about on a Tuesday. Josh Tarling seemed to be worth two riders for Ineos while Decathlon-CMA CGMs Daan Hoole went solo for the final 4.5km.The Route: 195km and only 2,520m of vertical gain, its hilly ride but the steep climbing is only for the finish. Its a long ride east and the the first climb to the hamlet of La Croix des Cerisiers is just a long gradual road up. Its over to the unmarked Col du Rebout but nothing steeper.After the intermediate sprint its on to the route of the 2021 Tour de France but that continued to Le Creusot where Matej Mohori won a lively stage. The Croix de la Libration is harder than the roadbook suggests, its got a wall of 20% which then eases and soon after comes a 15% section. Then comes a quick descent, a short flat passage and then the road starts to drag up.The Finish: a tricky climb to ride, and equally hard to describe in words because the gradient just keeps changing in the final 1.5km. Flat then 12% then 6% and then its 16%, 18%, 14%, 18%. Its not got the ferocity of the Mur de Huy but the difficulty comes from change in slope.The Contenders: Lenny Martinez (Bahrain) is almost a local, having grown up about 40km to the west of todays finish. Better for him hes suited to sharp climbs and changes in pace and he has a good final kick. Its how he won last years stage above La Cte-Saint Andr. But he hates the cold weather which means a chainring less.Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) is in yellow and so can afford to watch, react and snipe the win rather than gambling to take back time with an attack.Kvin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley (Ineos) are both ideal for the stage today and if either wins, even in a photofinish on the line they stand to take the race lead thanks to the time bonus.Axel Zingle has won uphill finishes like this before and can apparently do 1,250W for 30 seconds but is more likely to be deployed to help Jonas Vingegaard even if the Dane would like a longer climb.At his best David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) could take this stage but his form isnt sparkling.Almost half the field are four minutes down so the breakaway has a chance but if a punchy climber is going to win from this then chances are the big teams wont want to let them back in the race so the break will have it hard. Eddie Dunbar (Pinarello-Q36.5) and Pavel Sivakov (UAE) fit the bill as both are seven minutes down but the Irishman isnt on great form and Sivakov might be more useful for UAE in support of McNulty in the finish. Expect TotalEnergies to try and Matto Vercher is their best bet ahead of Alexandre Delettre.Onley, AyusoVauquelin, L MartinezGaudu, Vercher, D MartinezWeather: 10C and wet as a weather front crosses France. The following days should better and today is just cold rather than icy but the damp conditions will make things harder.TV: tune in for the final hour at 4.00pm to see the steep climb out of Autun and catch the finish at 5.00pm CET.Postcard from the Signal dUchonTodays finish on the Signal dUchon sits in the Morvan, Frances smallest mountain range. The Morvan tops out with the Haut-Folin at 901m. Todays finish is only 635m. You can ride higher with the Col de Haut-Folin which sits at 857m but which ever way you approach the pass the slope rarely gets more than 6% and its all on a wide, regular road. If a stage was to finish there the result would be different.No hairpins, no cuttings, no embankments, the Signal dUchon is a tricky climb because it has few concessions to engineering to level the slope. Its disruptive to ride up, the uneven gradient is hard to master. Ideally you want to profit from any easing of the slope to accelerate but its hard to judge and one wrongly timed surge can be ruinous.France has rules for road construction that regulate the maximum gradient but there are many exceptions, particularly when old tracks have been incorporated into the road network. What constitutes the steepest road keeps forums busy as its a question of measurement, you can find half a metre of 50% on the inside of a hairpin bend, but for a sustained portion the chapel above Als that hosts the finish of the Etoile de Bessges is said top the bill with 33%. There are plenty of options for a kilometre over 15% too.Race organisers are on the lookout for these steep roads. Paris-Nice has used Mont Brouilly before, or see last year wall stage. The Dauphin/Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes tackles the Grand Colombier this summer, its done the even steeper Bastille road above Grenoble in 2023 where Giulio Ciccone won. The Tour de France has a new version of the Col du Haag which has 10% and 15% but also some nasty 1% and 3% to disrupt things.Today is tricky and tomorrows stage features some backroads in the finale. Such climbs work best for racing and the TV spectacle the gradient keeps changing.The paradise, or hell, for these kind of climbs is the Basque Country. The Itzulia Tour of the Basque Country puts the spotlight on some of them for a week, notably the Alto de Arrate above Eibar but there are plenty more. Indeed there are plenty in the French part of the Basque country too and aroundSaint-Jean-Pied-de-Port you can find several of Frances steepest roads. But no race visits them and so they dont exist in our psychogeography.The post Paris-Nice Stage 4 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

This week's update features points scored in just three one-day races: Strade Bianche, Ename Samyn Classic and Trofeo Laigueglia. You can check the previous UCI Rankings update here. It has been a relatively quiet week of racing in terms of number of races, but it brought a few important changes in...