Alexander Kristoff continues winning streak with victory on stage one of Paris-Nice as Michal Kwiatkowski retains overall lead. Photos by Graham Watson
Norwegian Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) won the bunch sprint at the end of stage one of Paris-Nice in France on Monday.
Kristoff out-paced home favourites Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) and Bryan Coquard (Europcar) to take his fifth win of the season. British sprinter Ben Swift (Sky) finished ninth.
Prologue winner Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep) retained the overall race lead, tied on the same time with Rohan Dennis (BMC) in second. Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickSTep) is third at seven seconds. Geraint Thomas (Sky) gained a one second time bonus during the day's final intermediate sprint and sits in 10th overall, 13 seconds behind Kwiatkowski.
The frenetic bunch sprint came at the end of a slow day. Jonathan Hivert (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) was the first rider to attack out of Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, cresting the opening climb of the Cote de Bel Air out front to grab the King of the Mountains jersey. Hivert continued out front alone until he'd also taken maximum points at the day's first intermediate sprint, and was then caught by the peloton.
Australian sprinter Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) put himself in second spot in that first intermediate sprint to grab two bonus seconds - which would help his position on GC.
Hivert's Bretagne team-mate Anthony Delaplace was the next to attack after Hivert was scooped up by the peloton. He was joined by fellow Frenchman Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), and the two built up a lead of over five minutes as the peloton was content to take it steady. The duo's time gap over the bunch reached its maximum of just over six minutes at the 100km point.
Thomas Voeckler escapes with Anthony Delaplace on stage one of the 2015 Paris-Nice
(Image credit: Watson)
Voeckler and Delaplace were allowed to continue unchallenged as the peloton continued its leisurely pace. As the French pair hit the 20km to go mark, Voeckler upped the pace, with Delaplace matching him and their gap extended to over two minutes again - creating a bit more urgency in the peloton's chase.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
That urgency almost turned to panic in the final five kilometres, as Voeckler and Delaplace continued to forge ahead out front. A variety of the sprinters' team joined forces to make the catch with two kilometres to go.
