Monday 04 March 2013 at 18h09

The first stage in line of Paris-Nice 2013 ended, as expected in a bunch sprint in Nemours, after 195 kilometers of racing from the start in front of the castle in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

A 3 riders strong breakaway was taken back in the local circuit around Nemours and Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) finally won the stage, his second sprint victory this year, after the 6th stage of the Tour of Oman a few weeks ago.

Thanks to the 10 bonus seconds, the French Champion will no longer wear his bleu-white-red jersey tomorrow since he changed it for a yellow kit!

The summary of the first stage of Paris-Nice 2013: Saint-Germain-en-Laye > Nemours

Under a timid sun, the 184 riders of this 71st edition of Paris-Nice came to the start of this first stage.

The first attack came from Romain Sicard (Euskaltel-Euskadi), immediately at the real start of the race, and the French rider got company from another French rider, Yannick Talabardon (Sojasun) and from a Dutch rider, Bert-Jan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team).

This breakaway rapidly created quite a gap, starting at 45 seconds after 1.5 kilometers and getting to its maximum at 7 minutes and 20 seconds after 42 kilometers.

In the feeding zone, just shy of halfway this stage, their gap was slightly down but still equal to 5'35" when Pierrick Fédrigo (FDJ) left the race, being ill for a few days already.

From there, the peloton really started to get organised to chase behind these three riders and the gap thus gradually went down from that point.

At the first intermediate sprint in Malesherbes, Bert-Jan Lindeman is the first to cross the line, thus taking 3 points for the points classification and 3 bonus seconds for the general classification.

A bit later, a 500 meter long climb was waiting for the breakaway and in front of quite some public on the Côte de Buthier, Lindeman also made sure he would end up wearing Paris-Nice 2013's polka dot jersey. The peloton's delay is still 4'50" on top of that climb.

Probably because of the nerves getting higher while approaching the first sprint finish, two crashes cause some bruises and scratches, but the consequences are bigger for Rui Costa (Movistar) who has to leave the race, being injured on his left hand.

When the breakaway enters the final circuit in Nemours, their gap is still 3 minutes on the peloton in which several teams start to get ready to chase the breakaway in order to get a bunch sprint, with especially the FDJ team being very active.

At the second intermediate sprint, in this final loop around the finish city, Lindeman again takes the points, ahead of Talabardon and way ahead of Sicard who lost contact with the other two riders and who's soon to be taken back by the peloton.

At 23 kilometers from the finish, the adventure is over for the last leading duo as well, when the whole bunch comes back together. The complete peloton doesn't stay together for a long time however because it breaks up in two when some riders accellerate in front in the open fields around Nemours.

The other teams continue the preparation of the sprint and the Omega Pharma-QuickStep, FDJ and Orica-GreenEDGE successfully come up in front. In the end Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) gets delivered at the best place in the front of the peloton while approaching the finish line and the French Champion thus wins this first stage.

Bouhanni makes ita double since he ended 10 seconds behind Damien Gaudin (Team Europcar) in yesterday's prologue and with the 10 bonus seconds he takes on the finish line today, he ends up in the same second as Gaudin, taking the yellow jersey for a few hundreds of a second.

The classifications of Paris-Nice 2013 after the first stage Saint-Germain-en-Laye > Nemours

Here are the classifications after this first stage:

Stage classification 1/ Saint-Germain-en-Laye > Nemours

Hereunder you'll find the top 5 of the stage which finished in the Rue de Paris in Nemours:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) - 4h47'24"
2/ Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Merida)
3/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale)
4/ Jens Debusschere (Lotto-Belisol)
5/ Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling)

General classification

As indicated, Nacer Bouhanni also took the yellow jersey, in the same time as yesterday's winner, Damien Gaudin. Several sprinters, like Elia Viviani (Cannondale), Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Merida) and Michael Matthews are all at less than 10 seconds from the French sprinter however so if he wants to keep the yellow jersey tomorrow in Cérilly, Bouhanni will again have to win the stage or at least end among the first three riders.

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) - 4h51'01"
2/ Damien Gaudin (Team Europcar)
3/ Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +0'01"
4/ Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team)
5/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale)

Points classifcation

In the points classification, Sylvain Chavanel took enough points at the finish of this stage to climb up to the first position and thus to continue to wear the green jersey which he already wore instead of Damien Gaudin today.

The 6 points taken by Bert-Jan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) in the two intermediate sprints today get him only in the 24th position of this classification of which you'll find the top 5 below:

1/ Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 31 points
2/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale) - 30 points
3/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) - 25 points
4/ Damien Gaudin (Team Europcar) - 25 points
5/ Borut Bozic (Astana) - 25 points

King of the mountains classification

In the King of the Mountains classification Bert-Jan Lindeman does take the first place however by taking the points on the only referenced climb of this first stage. The Dutch rider will thus wear the polka dot jersey in the second and the 3rd stage since there are no climbs on tomorrow's programme.

1/ Bert-Jan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - 4 points
2/ Yannick Talabardon (Sojasun) - 2 points
3/ Romain Sicard (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - 1 point

Best young rider classification

By winning today's stage, Nacer Bouhanni also had the pleasure to dress up in white by moving up to the first place in the best young rider classification. Here's the top 5 of this classification in which Wilco Kelderman (Blanco) drops back to the 3rd place:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) - 4h51'01"
2/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale) - +0'01"
3/ Wilco Kelderman (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) - +0'02"
4/ Geoffrey Soupe (FDJ)
5/ Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Leopard) - +0'03"

The photos of Paris-Nice 2013 stage 1/ Saint-Germain-en-Laye > Nemours

>> Check out the selection of 86 photos of stage 1/ Saint-Germain-en-Laye > Nemours

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice | Paris-Nice 2013

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