Monday 08 March 2010 at 22h48

Today the riders connected Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines to Contres in 201.5 kilometers in the first stage of Paris-Nice 2010. The stage victory was for Greg Henderson (Team Sky) since, just like in the Cancer Council Classic of the Tour Down Under 2010, Henderson crossed the finish line first after the sprint.

In this article you'll find a resume of the stage and the classifications after this first stage. Lars Boom (Rabobank) will still wear the yellow leader's jersey tomorrow at the start of the stage towards Limoges.

A summary of the first stage of Paris-Nice 2010: Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines > Contres

The start from Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines was slightly earlier than planned and 175 riders came to the start (Gert Steegmans (Radioshack) didn't start due to his broken collarbone as I explained yesterday in the the summary of the prologue of Paris-Nice 2010), among whom Joost Posthuma (Rabobank) who celebrated his 29th anniversary. Since Lars Boom (Rabobank) took all jerseys, Jens Voigt (Team Saxo Bank) was wearing the green jersey, Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) the polka dot jersey since he had the second best time at the top of the Côte de Boursouffle and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) the white jersey.

Right from the 3rd kilometer Romain Feillu of the Dutch Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team launched the first attack, followed by Albert Timmer (Skil-Shimano) and they created a gap with the peloton up to 6'20" in less than 30 kilometers. Thanks to the wind in the back they did no less than 48.4 kilometers in the first hour. Led by the Rabobank team the peloton reduced the gap with the two leading riders. At the first intermediate sprint in Gaubert, Romain Feillu took 3 points ahead of Albert Timmer (2 points) and Lars Boom (Rabobank) who took 1 more point for his green jersey and one second for the general classification. At the intermediate sprint in Herbault the same riders took the points, in the inversed order for the leading duo.
At kilometer 149 the early leading duo was taken back and about 10 kilometers further it was up to Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano) to form a new leading duo, but led by the Caisse d'Epargne and Rabobank teams the peloton took them back as well 16 kilometers from the finish.

After Alejandro Valverde (photo, Caisse d'Epargne)'s attack led to a leading group of 17 riders at about 10 kilometers from the finish, with Luis Léon Sanchez, Jose Vicente Garcia Acosta, Ivan Gutierrez, Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne), Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia), Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo), Lars Boom (Rabobank), Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale), David Millar (Garmin-Transitions), Grega Bole (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Serguei Ivanov, Alexander Kolobnev (Team Katusha), Greg Henderson (Team Sky), Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), Jérémie Galland and Cyril Lemoine (Saur-Sojasun). This group continued till the finish and a final attack by Serguei Ivanov didn't work out since Tony Martin brought the group back to the rider of the Team Katusha. In the sprint, it was finally Greg Henderson (Team Sky) who won the stage, ahead of Grega Bole and Jérémie Galland.

The comments of the winner, Greg Henderson

After the finish, the stage winner declared to letour.fr that it felt like he was doing the sprint in slow motion since everyone was tired, after this hard day with the wind. He also underlined the importance of this victory: I took the first victory for Team Sky in Australia (the Cancer Council Classic of the Tour Down Under 2010), which was symbolically important, but to win a stage in Paris-Nice, is really great.
Since he didn't have any team mates in the leading group, Henderson had to launch the sprint alone: I followed Sean Yates' tips. He told me the young rider of Lampre (Grega Bole) was fast, so I decided to follow his wheel and at the end I jumped over him.

The classifications

The stage classification

The top 10 of this first stage was formed by the riders of the leading group which was formed close to the finish:
1/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky) - 4h22'17"
2/ Grega Bole (Lampre-Farnese Vini)
3/ Jérémie Galland (Saur-Sojasun)
4/ Alexandr Kolobnev (Team Katusha)
5/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne)
6/ Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale)
7/ Jens Voigt (Team Saxo Bank)
8/ Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team)
9/ Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia)
10/ Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo)

The general classification (yellow jersey)

A few minor modifications in the general classification where Lars Boom is still leading, just like in the other classifications:
1/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 4h33'11"
2/ Jens Voigt (Team Saxo Bank)- +00'05"
3/ David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) - +00'13"
4/ Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) - +00'14"
5/ Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas Doimo) - +00'15"
6/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky) - +00'20"
7/ Levi Leipheimer (Team Radioshack) - +00'25"
8/ Alberto Contador (Astana) - +00'25"
9/ Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) - +00'29"
10/ Xavier Tondo (Cervélo TestTeam) - +00'29"

The other main favourites are placed 11/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) - +00'31", 13/ Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +00'34", 24/ Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) and 63/ Frank Schleck (Team Saxo Bank).

Classification by points (green jersey)

1/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 36 points
2/ Jens Voigt (Team Saxo Bank) - 36 points
3/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky) - 25 points
4/ David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) - 24 points
5/ Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) - 23 points

Classification of best climber (polka dot jersey)

Nothing changes in the classification of best climbers since this stage didn't contain any climbs:
1/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 4 points
2/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) - 2 points
3/ Laurent Mangel (Saur-Sojasun) - 1 point

Classification of best young rider (white jersey)

The big Dutch rider also keeps the lead of the best young rider classification, the white jersey will be on the shoulders of Roman Kreuziger in the stage Contres to Limoges:
1/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 4h33'11"
2/ Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) - +00'15"
3/ Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) - +00'29"
4/ Grega Bole (Lampre-Farnese Vini) - +00'32"
5/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - +00'39"

The other stages of Paris-Nice 2010

For further information about Paris-Nice 2010, you can click on the following links:
> The Paris-Nice 2010 route, profiles, time and route schedule and Google Maps/Google Earth
> The list of participating riders in Paris-Nice 2010 with their numbers
> The photos of the prologue of Paris-Nice 2010 in Montfort-l'Amaury

© illustration photo of this article (Greg Henderson): Tour Down Under

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice | Paris-Nice 2010

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