The 2012 Paris–Nice was the 70th running of the Paris–Nice cycling stage race, often known as the Race to the Sun. It started on 4 March in Dampierre-en-Yvelines and ended on 11 March in Nice and consisted of eight stages, including two time trials that bookended the race. It was the second race of the 2012 UCI World Tour season.
The race was won by Great Britain's Bradley Wiggins of , who took the lead on the second stage of the race and held the race leader's yellow jersey to the finish, becoming the first British rider to win the race since Tom Simpson in 1967. Wiggins also took home the green jersey for amassing the highest number of points during stages at intermediate sprints and stage finishes. Wiggins won the general classification by eight seconds over runner-up Lieuwe Westra (), who was winner of the race's queen stage to Mende. 's Alejandro Valverde completed the podium, 62 seconds behind Westra and 70 seconds down on Wiggins.
In the race's other classifications, Tejay van Garderen of won the white jersey for the highest placed rider born in 1987 or later by placing fifth overall in the general classification, while rider Frederik Veuchelen won the King of the Mountains classification. also finished at the head of the teams classification at the end of a fruitful week for the team, in which their riders also claimed three stage victories.
Teams As Paris–Nice was a UCI World Tour event, all 18 UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Four other squads were given wildcard places into the race, and as such, formed the event's 22-team peloton.
The 22 teams that competed in the race were:
Route +Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner 1 4 March Dampierre-en-Yvelines to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse Individual time trial 2 5 March Mantes-la-Jolie to Orléans Flat stage 3 6 March Vierzon to Lac de Vassivière Hilly stage 4 7 March Brive-la-Gaillarde to Rodez Hilly stage 5 8 March Onet-le-Château to Mende Medium mountain stage 6 9 March Suze-la-Rousse to Sisteron Hilly stage 7 10 March Sisteron to Nice Medium mountain stage 8 11 March Nice to Col d'Èze Individual time trial
Stages
Stage 1
4 March 2012 — Dampierre-en-Yvelines to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, (ITT)
The race began in the Vallée de Chevreuse for the first time, as it reverted to an opening individual time trial stage after race organisers elected to run a road stage first in 2011. Apart from the third-category climb of the Côte des Dix-sept Tournants – the hill of seventeen turns – the stage was relatively flat, dropping only in altitude from the start, to the end. With rain expected to disrupt the stage, teams decided to spread their time trial specialists across the field in order to maximise their potential of winning the stage. For the first rider to depart the start in Dampierre-en-Yvelines, 's Alexandre Geniez, weather conditions were cloudy and grey, with slightly damp roads due to overnight rains. He ultimately recorded a time of 12' 10" for the stage.
Geniez held the lead for all of a few minutes as Denis Menchov () improved upon his time by eight seconds, before rider Thomas Dekker was the first rider to set a time below twelve minutes, recording a time of 11' 56"; a six-second improvement on Menchov's time. Michael Mørkøv (), and later Maarten Wynants () both improved upon Dekker's time, but by the end of the first wave of riders to depart, it was and Sylvain Chavanel that held the lead, recording a time of 11' 31". Following a quick start to the stage, 's Thomas De Gendt was the next rider to hold the provisional best time on the stage, besting Chavanel's time by less than a second. De Gendt, who won the opening stage of the race in 2011, ultimately picked up the polka-dot jersey for the lead in the mountains classification, as he held the quickest time to the intermediate timing point, at the summit of the Côte des Dix-sept Tournants. De Gendt's time held for a while, as riders struggled to match the pace that he had set, with only Markel Irizar of coming within touching distance of his time, finishing one second down.
It was not until De Gendt's team-mate Gustav Larsson – the Swedish national champion in the discipline – that his time was beaten; Larsson, although six seconds slower than De Gendt to the intermediate checkpoint, put in a better second element to the race, eventually crossing the finish line in an eventual stage-winning time of 11' 19". also deployed Levi Leipheimer in the first half of riders to complete the course, and did so in a time four seconds slower than Larsson. The weather closed in for the last batch of riders, providing a tougher test for those riders in wanting to position themselves highly in the stage classification. 's Tejay van Garderen and 's Bradley Wiggins both attacked the course late on, and were rewarded with finishes inside the top five, as van Garderen finished nine seconds down on Larsson, while Wiggins – a winner of the time trial stage in February's Volta ao Algarve – fell short by just one second, but ensured he had an advantage of 24 seconds on defending race-winner and world time trial champion Tony Martin (), who could only finish 28th.
Stage 1 Result and General Classification after Stage 1 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 1" 3 + 4" 4 + 9" 5 + 12" 6 + 12" 7 + 13" 8 + 13" 9 + 15" 10 + 15"
Stage 2
5 March 2012 — Mantes-la-Jolie to Orléans,
Following his crash in the opening day time trial, 's Nick Nuyens became the race's first abandonment; he attempted to ride through the pain barrier, but had to withdraw within the neutralised zone prior to the real start of the stage. The peloton itself remained together for the first third of the race, as strong headwinds counteracted against the field and did not allow for any breakaways to be formed efficiently. As such, Olivier Kaisen was the first to make a move for , attacking as the field moved through the commune of Rambouillet. Kaisen managed to extend his advantage out by almost three minutes when he reached the summit of the day's only categorised climb, in Les Granges-le-Roi. Mountains classification leader Thomas De Gendt () placed second, with Sylvain Chavanel third for .
As the field reached the midway point of the stage, the windy conditions that had earlier plagued any potential breakaway from forming returned, and the crosswinds provided a large split in the field and echelons forming within it. By the time that the race had been finished, around thirty riders had made it in the lead group on the road, including overall contenders Bradley Wiggins of , 's Levi Leipheimer and rider Tejay van Garderen. The group was later reduced to 21 riders out front after several small crashes eliminated a handful of riders from contention. Wiggins put more time into his rivals by taking the intermediate sprint, and with it, three bonus seconds on offer that gave him the virtual race lead, without even considering the fact that the overnight leader Gustav Larsson () failed to make the split. The gap from the lead pack to the first group of pursuers remained between two and two-and-a-half minutes for the rest of stage with many teams electing not to bridge the gap, mainly due to the rain that had commenced within the closing .
Larsson's team-mate Lieuwe Westra attacked with around remaining, but his effort was quickly neutralised by Chavanel, one of a number of riders in the group hoping to help Tom Boonen in a sprint finish lead-out. Following another failed attack from rider Andreas Klier, it was left to the sprinters to battle it out for the stage honours. 's John Degenkolb – who had recovered to the group after a puncture with remaining – was the first to make an attempt for the line, closely followed by José Joaquín Rojas (), but both were out-sprinted by Boonen, who went to the inside of Degenkolb and took out the victory, for the 100th individual victory of his career, and his team's first at UCI World Tour level. Rojas just beat Degenkolb for second place on the line with Sep Vanmarcke and Francesco Gavazzi rounding out the top five for and respectively. Following his finish in the lead group, Wiggins assumed the overall lead from Larsson, with Boonen taking the points classification lead while moving into third place overall behind team-mate Leipheimer, thanks to the bonus seconds on offer at the finish.
Stage 2 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General Classification after Stage 2 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 6" 3 + 7" 4 + 11" 5 + 14" 6 + 18" 7 + 21" 8 + 22" 9 + 28" 10 + 29"
Stage 3
6 March 2012 — Vierzon to Lac de Vassivière,
A trio of riders – 's Roy Curvers, rider Jimmy Engoulvent and Michael Mørkøv of – made the early breakaway from the field, and managed to extend their advantage to the main field to over four-and-a-half minutes at one point during the stage, before eventually stabilising at the 4' 30" mark for the majority of the stage. and riders occupied the front portion of the peloton, protecting their respective lead riders Bradley Wiggins and Levi Leipheimer in order to not lose time before the final climb at Lac de Vassivière. The pack, now fronted by the , steadily cut into the lead for the three escapees, who reached the categorised climb of the Côte de Bourganeuf with an advantage of less than three minutes. Curvers crested the summit first, but posed no threat to the mountains classification leader Thomas De Gendt (), who kept a hold of the polka-dot jersey.
After the climb, the peloton lifted the pace and cut into the leaders' advantage, trimming off two minutes within the space of . Engoulvent left his two breakaway companions behind with remaining, as hit the front of the peloton, this time with points classification leader Tom Boonen doing some of the legwork. Engoulvent held his slim lead through the intermediate sprint at Peyrat-le-Château, before being engulfed by the field with to go. rider Sergey Lagutin attacked with to go – just as team-mate Lieuwe Westra did the previous day – but was unsuccessful, and was eventually caught just before the final kilometre of the stage. Westra attacked but was covered off immediately, setting up the uphill sprint to the line.
French pair Blel Kadri () and Jérémie Galland () both launched their attacks in the closing stages, but were overhauled by a bunch of riders from which Alejandro Valverde () looked to have the legs on the rest of the field, sprinting from out. Valverde was briefly troubled by the sprint of Australian road race champion Simon Gerrans (), with Valverde ultimately prevailing at the line – just as was the case at the Tour Down Under in a two-up sprint – by half a wheel length, with 's Gianni Meersman rounding out the podium ahead of 's Luis León Sánchez and 's Xavier Florencio; both of whom had launched their own attacks in the closing metres. Valverde's victory – his fourth of the season since returning from a doping ban – was enough to move him into the lead of the points classification, while the bonus seconds awarded on the line moved him into sixth place overall, 20 seconds down on race leader Wiggins.
Stage 3 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General Classification after Stage 3 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 6" 3 + 11" 4 + 14" 5 + 18" 6 + 20" 7 + 22" 8 + 29" 9 + 33" 10 + 36"
Stage 4
7 March 2012 — Brive-la-Gaillarde to Rodez,