Following the cancellation of several Italian races on Thursday due to the Covid 19 coronavirus, several teams as well as race organizer ASO acted quickly to adjust their Paris-Nice plans.

RCS Sport decided to cancel both Saturday's Strade Bianche races following the Italian government's suspension of the sporting event, and GP Larchiano organizers canceled Sunday's race.

ASO responded to the news by adjusting the roster sizes for the races to allow teams to field additional riders; after five teams (Astana, CCC Team, Mitchelton Scott, Team Ineos, and UAE Team Emirates) withdrew from the races, ASO decided to cancel the Circus= Wanty Gobert and B&B Hotels-Vital Concepts were invited.

"The 78th edition of Paris-Nice will be held in a 19-team peloton, confirmed by the health authorities and the Ministry of Sport on Tuesday, March 3," a statement from the race organizers said.

"Under these special circumstances, two additional invitations have been given to teams in the UCI ProTeam category: the B&B Hotels-Vital Concept and Circus-Wanty Gobert.

"With the agreement of the International Cycling Union (UCI) and after consultation with the teams, the organizers also decided to increase the number of riders per team from seven to eight.

France's AG2R La Mondiale changed its spring calendar to send Romain Bardet to this race. The team cancelled Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo, and he will start Paris-Nice on Sunday.

"Romain needs to race for later goals," AG2R boss Vincent Lavene told L'Equipe (open in new tab).

"Everything suggests that the race will be cancelled, but it is not yet confirmed," he said of the Italian race.

Deceuninck-QuickStep also responded to the situation unfolding in Italy, adjusting three athlete registrations for Paris-Nice, which starts Sunday.

"The selection for Paris-Nice has been changed. Players from the Classics will now be given priority."

"Zdenek Stival, Kasper Asgreen, and Bob Jungels will join the team. Dries Devenan, Remi Cavagna, and Tim DeClerk will leave the team.

Peeters further stated that the team would try to make up for lost race days, although some riders had requested a training camp in Spain.

"Some riders wanted to go to Spain for a training camp, but we also have the Dunain GP in our program. We will coordinate our selection. Riders like Florian Senechal and Tim Declercq will definitely be in Monserre."

Wielerfritz reported that Bora Hansgrohe has been added to the start list for the 1.1 ranked one-day race on Sunday, and organizers said there are slots for more teams.

Unrelated to the coronavirus, Bahrain McLaren's Mikel Landa has been ruled out of the Paris-Nice race after being hit by a car during training in early February and cracking a rib.

"Mikel will need to run a less physically demanding schedule for the next two weeks due to ongoing stress-related pain from last month's car accident," said team doctor Carlo Guardacione.