This year’s Paris-Nice has had its two flat stages and a time trial. The peloton have leap-frogged across the Massif Central and are already in Provence for the final 4 days of racing. One suspects that they were more than happy to leave the frozen wastes of the north and get down south as soon as possible. It is, of course, known as “The Race to the Sun.”

In its first edition back in 1933 it was named “Six Days of the Road” and was designed as a way of easing bike racers back into road cycling after the six day track season. It was the brainchild of Albert Lejeune who owned two newspapers “Le Petit Nicois” based in Nice and “Le Petit Journal” whose offices were in Paris.