Nairo Quintana will lead Arkéa-Samsic at Paris-Nice

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Nairo Quintana will lead the Arkéa-Samsic team during this year’s edition of Paris-Nice, from March 6 to 13, 2022.

In the weeks leading up to the early-season stage race known as the “Course au Soleil”, Quintana also plans to launch the Tour de la Provence (February 10-13), the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes et du Var ( February 18-20), and the Ardèche Classic (February 26).

“Nairo will start the 2022 season with a ‘classic’ program which worked perfectly for him two seasons ago when he joined the Arkéa-Samsic team. He has a reference for his training with a sporting year which will start with the Tour de la Provence”, declared the sports director of Arkéa-Samsic, Yvon Ledanois. “He will then go on to the Tour of the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var, then the Faune Ardèche, before Paris-Nice. The highlights of his season will be Paris-Nice and the Tour of Catalonia, a program which was planned two years ago but which could not be carried out due to the pandemic.

Read also : Nairo Quintana all-in for one more Tour de France race

Quintana won the green jersey and overall in the 2020 Tour des Alpes-Maritimes et du Var. He also took the GC victory in the Tour de la Provence the same year.

At Paris-Nice 2021, Primož Roglič nearly secured the race until a series of accidents and a dislocated shoulder on the final stage put the three-time Vuelta a España winner out of action. These unfortunate events allowed Max Schachmann to claim a second consecutive overall victory.

While ‘Nairoman’ will lead the French team in France, Nacer Bouhanni and Warren Barguil will overlap at a few events in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

The team registered in Barguil for the Mallorca Challenge (January 26-30). He will continue with the Vuelta a Murcia (February 12) before heading to the Volta ao Algarve (February 16-20). Then it’s off to the Classics of Ardèche and Drôme (February 26 and 27). The following week, Barguil will be at the start of the Strade Bianche (March 5), then he will continue a campaign in Italy, in Tirreno-Adriatico (March 7-13), and will crown the campaign in Milano-Turin (March 16).

In 2019, Barguil finished third in the Drôme Classic. He returned the following year, in 2020, to finish one place better, in second place.

“Warren will start the 2022 season with the Trofeo de Mallorca and then race the Vuelta de Murcia and the Volta Ao Algarve in Portugal, where he will be named leader, then he will look back on a classic weekend for him, consisting of the Faun Ardèche and the Classic de Drôme. He will then compete in the Strade Bianche, which he did well in 2014, with a fine eighth place in Siena”, specifies sports director Yvon Caër.

Bouhanni also has a multi-country campaign to kick off his 2022 season and has plans for the Saudi Tour (February 1-5), followed by La Clasica de Almeiria, Spain (February 13) and Drôme Classic (February 27) . Bouhanni also has plans for the Milano-Sanremo monument on March 19.

“The return of the Saudi Tour to the 2022 calendar allows us to team up with Nacer, which in 2020 opened its victory account under our colors for this event,” said sporting director Sébastien Hinault. “The change of program for him this year is due to the fact that he will play Tirreno-Adriatico which will be for him a different approach from Milano-Sanremo which as everyone knows remains one of his main objectives.”

Barguil and Bouhanni will share managerial duties at Tirreno-Adriatico.

In 2021, Tadej Pogačar won the overall in the season-opening Italian stage race known as the “Race of Two Seas”.

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