Before the race, Wout van Aert spoke of a treacherous stage as the course included a short but steep climb just before the finish. "The last climb can be too hard for the sprinters. It would be good for me if we get a hard race and I can sprint”, the Belgian champion had said before the start.

After the three-riders breakaway was caught at ten kilometres from the finish, Team Jumbo-Visma dictated the race.

Rohan Dennis and Mike Teunissen pulled hard at the front of the peloton towards the day's final climb. After Teunissen had delivered his teammates in an ideal position, Nathan Van Hooijdonk took the initiative. He accelerated with Laporte, Roglic and Van Aert in his wake and tore the peloton apart. Soon after, Laporte accelerated again, allowing the trio of Team Jumbo-Visma to reach the top of the final climb first, and with five kilometres to go, the three teammates maintained their lead on the peloton.

For Laporte, it was his first victory in Team Jumbo-Visma’s yellow and black jersey. "I am thrilled. As a French rider, Paris-Nice is a big race for me. The plan was to keep Primoz in the classification and sprint with Wout. I was allowed to attack to make the race hard, which I did, and only the three of us remained."

Van Aert called the successful coup exceptional. "We had the plan to make the race hard on the climb. We thought this could be a good move for my winning chances and Primoz's classification. Christophe took over from Nathan so fiercely that we put everyone on the limit. I was surprised only three of us were left. Then it was a matter of racing to the finish as fast as possible. I think this is an extraordinary victory for Christophe in his own country. Also because of the yellow jersey that comes with it. I wanted to give him this victory.”

Frans Maassen looked at his winning team from the team car. "We had hoped for Wout to win, but this outcome was unprecedented. The plan was to be well-grouped at twelve kilometres. That was Rohan’s task and he did it in a formidable way. Subsequently, Mike and Nathan did an excellent job as well. Laporte was going to attack as hard as he could on the climb to see what would happen and we saw how that ended up."

Maassen looked ahead towards the rest of the tour with confidence. "We have a strong team. This is a first blow and a nice victory. Let's enjoy this, but the goal is to go for the GC with Primoz of course."