Headlines: Paris-Nice Leaders | Bardet at Strade Bianche | 3 Days of De Panne

This morning’s news round-up.

Paris – Nice Leaders

The race to the sun arrives this weekend and the lead roles are already being announced. Warren Barguil will head up the new Fortuneo-Samsic team, Drome Classic winner Lilian Calmejane will be the GC contender for Direct Energie while Elia Viviani and Julian Alaphilippe will sit at the heart of the Quickstep Floors team.

Bardet at Strade Bianche

Romain Bardet of Ag2R La Mondiale will be present on the white roads of Tuscany this weekend at the Strade Bianche 2018. The challenging terrain put forward by the race combined with the terrible weather forecast will provide a good training ground for the cobbled stages present at the 2018 Tour de France.

The 3 Days of Bruges – De Panne 2018

The Three Days of De Panne takes a new title and completely new format in 2018. The Three Days of Bruges – De Panne 2018 will be a two-day event comprising a one-day race (UCI 1.HC) for the men on Wednesday, March 21 and a one-day course for women on Thursday, March 22.

Five WorldTour teams will appear at the startline: Quick-Step Floors, Lotto Soudal, Katusha-Alpecin, Mitchelton-Scott and Bora-Hansgrohe. They’ll be accompanied by Veranda’s Willems-Crelan (Wout Van Aert), Wanty-Groupe Gobert (Timothy Dupont), Topsport Flanders-Baloise and WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic. The Dutch Roompot-Dutch Lottery and the French teams Cofidis (with a possible appearence from Nacer Bouhanni) and Vital Concept (Bryan Coquard) will also be present.