[5] Lotto–Soudal also chose to compete under a different name from the rest of the season: they became Lotto Fix ALL, taking the name of one of a product made by Soudal, their normal sponsor.

The race began with a 6.1-kilometre (3.8 mi) prologue individual time trial in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, near Paris, on Sunday 6 March and continued for the following seven days.

There were a large number of climbers present for Paris–Nice, but the overwhelming favourite was Alberto Contador (Tinkoff), racing in what was possibly his final season in the peloton.

In the absence of the traditional Col d'Èze time trial, the route was expected to favour him less than previous editions, but his strength in the mountains meant that he was still one of the major favourites.

Other prominent sprinters included André Greipel (Lotto–Soudal), Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha), Arnaud Démare (FDJ) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis).

Matthews described it as "very special" to beat Dumoulin, one of the best time-triallists in the world, and said that he hoped to stay in the yellow jersey of the race leader "as long as possible".

The riders then rode a complete lap of the circuit, crossing both gravel roads and the climb a second time, before reaching the stage finish.

[19] The stage began with a four-man breakaway, formed by Thomas De Gendt (Lotto–Soudal), Steven Tronet (Fortuneo–Vital Concept), Thierry Hupond (Delko–Marseille Provence KTM) and Perrig Quéméneur (Direct Énergie).

In the second half of the stage, there was some sunshine, but also strong crosswinds: with Sky, Tinkoff and Etixx–Quick-Step working hard at the front of the peloton, there were splits in the group.

[21] On the first gravel section, the breakaway's lead had been reduced to ten seconds and they were soon caught with Sky's Luke Rowe working at the front of the peloton.

[22] Sky's Ben Swift was the first to sprint and came close to taking the victory, but he was passed by Démare in the final metres, with Bouhanni finishing third.

[26] There was again a four-main breakaway at the beginning of the stage, with Evaldas Šiškevičius (Delko–Marseille Provence KTM), Anthony Delaplace (Fortuneo–Vital Concept), Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) and Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre–Merida) earning a 10-minute lead by the time they had raced 20 kilometres (12 mi).

[27] Šiškevičius and Brändle attacked at the start of the final lap, with Delaplace unable to follow, but with 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) remaining they were caught by the peloton.

Bouhanni crossed the line first, with Matthews just beating Niccolò Bonifazio (Trek–Segafredo) for second place, but the result was changed shortly after the stage.

Bouhanni was relegated to third place after the jury decided that he had driven the sprint dangerously, giving Matthews the stage victory and putting Bonifazio into second.

They were joined by Jesús Herrada (Movistar Team) and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto–Soudal) as the rest of the group was caught by the peloton.

[33] The stage took place in cold, wintry conditions, with increasing quantities of snow falling and temperatures as low as −5 °C (23 °F) recorded.

These were Thomas Voeckler (Direct Énergie), Matthew Brammeier (Dimension Data), Florian Vachon (Fortuneo–Vital Concept) and Evaldas Šiškevičius (Delko–Marseille Provence KTM).

Nathan Haas (Dimension Data) attacked the peloton at the top of the climb, but made a mistake on a corner and ended up in a field.

Katusha and Cofidis rode very hard in the peloton to bring them back, but the breakaway was finally caught with less than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) remaining.

The last of these came with 38.5 kilometres (23.9 mi) to the finish line; this last section was mostly flat, although there were two sharp left-hand turns in the final 1,000 metres (1,100 yd).

[42] The early breakaway included Stijn Vandenbergh (Etixx–Quick-Step), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Lars Boom (Astana), Wouter Wippert (Cannondale), Edward Theuns (Trek–Segafredo), Matthias Brändle (IAM), Antoine Duchesne (Direct Énergie) and Jesús Herrada (Movistar).

Herrada won the first two climbs of the day and came second on the following two to take the lead in the mountains classification, then dropped back to the peloton.

The route started on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, then left the city to the north for a course that included seven categorised climbs.

These were Antoine Duchesne (Direct Énergie), Florian Vachon (Fortuneo–Vital Concept), Niki Terpstra (Etixx–Quick-Step), Cyril Gautier (AG2R La Mondiale), Grégory Rast (Trek–Segafredo), Evaldas Šiškevičius (Delko–Marseille Provence KTM), Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre–Merida), Andrew Talansky (Cannondale) and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto–Soudal).

With 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) remaining, Rafał Majka (Tinkoff) attacked, with Contador following; this caused the group to halve in size and Sky were reduced to two riders, Thomas and Sergio Henao.

With 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi) remaining, Majka pulled off and a group of five leaders formed: Contador, Thomas, Henao, Porte and Zakarin.

They then descended back into Nice, where the final 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) were fairly flat, before ended on the Promenade des Anglais at the Albert I Garden [fr].

He said that Henao's presence had been crucial to his victory and that, before the stage, he had chosen a 54-tooth chainring to help him chase back on if he was dropped on the final climb.

His directeur sportif, Sean Yates, said that the team were "nearly there" in their attempt to take the overall victory and suggested that the cancellation of Stage 3 may have prevented Contador from winning the race.