Thanks to the pleasant climate and challenging roads, Nice, its hinterland and the Côte d’Azur are popular with professional cyclists, many of whom have adopted the region for training purposes. Traditionally a base for training camps at the end of winter, the city and its surroundings used to host a number of early-season events, most of which have now disappeared. Of course, Paris-Nice, always a captivating race, remains. Since 1933, it has served up a thrilling and competitive week of action in March. Boasting a prestigious palmarès, it also opens the UCI WorldTour calendar in Europe. A decade ago, Nice- Nice became the event’s final stage. Two great champions have already been crowned on the loops around the French Riviera city. The first was Canada’s Christel Ferrier-Bruneau, who won the road race at the Francophonie Games in 2013. More recently, Britain’s Lizzie Deignan won the 2020 edition of La Course by le Tour de France on the Promenade des Anglais after an extremely close sprint finish ahead of Dutch rider Marianne Vos.
- Prefecture of Alpes-Maritimes (06)
- Population: 354,000; 570,000 within the Nice Côte d’Azur municipality; 1,115,000 within Alpes-Maritimes
- nice.fr