{"id":734405,"date":"2026-02-01T03:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T03:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/734405\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T03:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T03:48:12","slug":"preview-gp-la-marseillaise-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/734405\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview GP La Marseillaise 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/grand-prix-la-marseillaise\" title=\"Grand Prix La Marseillaise\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Grand Prix La Marseillaise<\/a> is the first race in the French calendar every year and opens up the competition for many riders in the peloton. The hilly classic will take place on the 1st of February, with an estimated start and finish time at 12:40 and 16:30CET. We <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/preview\" title=\"Preview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">preview<\/a> the race.<\/p>\n<p>Originally known simply as La Marseillaise before adopting its current title, the race has become a staple for the start of the season and an important early test for World Tour, ProTeams and Continental teams alike. The likes of Bernard Hinault, Jan Raas and Richard Virenque were amongst the first to win this race which was created in 1980, immediately creating an important reputation.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years we&#8217;ve had a mix of classics riders and sprinters taking the victory, in different race situations despite having very similar courses. This decade, we&#8217;ve seen victories from Beno\u00eet Cosnefroy, Aur\u00e9lien Paret-Peintre, Amaury Capiot, Neilson Powless, Kevin Geniets &#8211; whilst <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/cycling\/valentin-ferron-takes-thrilling-grand-prix-la-marseillaise-win-in-photo-finish-finale\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">Valentin Ferron took a victory from a reduced peloton last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>The route is going to continue being very hilly, but in some way, better adapted to the sprinters this year as the Route des Cr\u00eates won&#8217;t be climbed towards the end of the race, meaning there are less moments in which the difference can be made by those who climb better. The Col de la Gineste, which ends with 9.5 kilometers to go, will be the key point of the race and the last chance for attacks to succeed, otherwise a sprint is expected in Marseille to determine the victor.<\/p>\n<p>Profile: Marseille &#8211; Marseille<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/profile-2026grandprixlamarseillaise-6978b36d48e9a.png@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"Profile of the 2026 Grand Prix la Marseillaise\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Marseille &#8211; Marseille, 145.5 kilometers<\/p>\n<p>Prediction Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2026:\u00a0*** <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/lukas-kubis\" title=\"Lukas Kubis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lukas Kubis<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/bryan-coquard\" title=\"Bryan Coquard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bryan Coquard<\/a><br \/>**  Jordan Labrosse, Paul Lapeira, Emilien Jeanni\u00e8re<br \/>* Hugo Houle, Alexis Renard, Ewen Costiou, Vito Braet, Stefano Oldani, Cl\u00e9ment Venturini, Niklas Larsen, Sandy Dujardin<\/p>\n<p><b>Pick<\/b>: Emillien Jeanni\u00e8re<\/p>\n<p><b>How<\/b>: Reduced peloton sprint<\/p>\n<p><b>Original: R\u00faben Silva<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Grand Prix La Marseillaise is the first race in the French calendar every year and opens up&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[95666,4230,217875,217876,6696,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-734405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-bryan-coquard","9":"tag-cycling","10":"tag-grand-prix-la-marseillaise","11":"tag-lukas-kubis","12":"tag-preview","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115993333192885953","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}