Denmark’s Magnus Kort climbed to the top of the Paris-Nice overall standings on Tuesday despite Jumbo-Visma winning the team time trial at round three in central France.
Nielsen, 30, is one second ahead of Belgium’s Nathan Van Hooydonk, who placed second, and three seconds ahead of Australia’s Michael Mathews, who placed third.
Stage four on Wednesday is a 165km south ride from Saint-Amand-Montron to La Lodge-de-Garde, passing through Vichy.
“I thought it was a good route, not very technical, but not completely flat either,” Cort said.
“Tomorrow? It’s going to be a tough day, but I’ll do my best to keep the jersey.”
Tour de France champion and Cort’s compatriot Jonas Wingegaard is in fifth place, while two-time UAE Grand Boucle winner Team Emirates Tadej Pogacar is in 10th.
The fourth stage marks the beginning of a three-day ascent near the cities of Clermont and Lyon.
“The team is in good shape, but we wanted to create a bigger gap between ourselves and our rivals, but overall we are happy with the result,” said Wingegaard of Jumbo.
“Now it’s time for the mountains and we’ll see who’s stronger.”
The day marked a change in the team time trial format, with the clock stopped when the first rider crossed the line, rather than the fourth or fifth.
Driving 32.2 km around the small village of Dampierre-en-Burly, Jumbo was one second ahead of the Cort EF Education-EasyPost team.
Matthews’ Jaiko Alula was third, four seconds back in cloudy conditions at the Race to the Sun, which ends on the Côte d’Azur in Nice on Sunday.
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Source: sports.yahoo.com
