Paris-Nice: Groenewegen wins opening sprint

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Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) came out on top in a pulsating opening stage at Paris-Nice with a win ahead of Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep).

Last year's overall winner Marc Soler (Movistar) lost time, finishing in a second group, while other potential GC rivals also finished well down after the race was peppered with cross winds and crashes.

Groenewegen and his Jumbo-Visma team were well-placed throughout the race, and the Dutchman was too strong in the finale, taking his third win of the season. He came around Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Merida) in the final 100 meters, after the Italian had opened his sprint far too early. Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) looked to be in the mix, but he had no response when Groenewegen hit the front. Ewan started his sprint further back, and although he came through the field, he was unable to challenge Groenewegen, who now leads the race lead.

"It was really hard finale and a really hard day. It was a short day, but hard. Did I enjoy it? I don't know about that. It was windy, very open, and we know about that being from Holland. It was a great day," Groenewegen said.

"There are a lot of really good sprinters here. It was really close, but we won, so I'm really happy. Caleb Ewan came really close I maybe beat him by one millimetre but it was enough. I already have a yellow jersey but now the real yellow jersey, so I'm really happy."

The stage was marked by series of splits and crashes with Jumbo-Visma, Team Sky, Groupama-FDJ and AG2r La Mondiale all looking to put their rivals under pressure early on in the race.

A three-man group of Damien Gaudin (Direct Energie), Amael Moinard (Team Arkea-Samsic), and Romain Combaud (Delko Marseille Provence) had gone clear inside the opening kilometres, but with the battle for both the stage and the first yellow jersey of the race, it was unlikely that any attack would go the distance.

With 55km to go, and after Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) had crashed out, the trio at the front of the race saw their lead dip to under two minutes. Back in the peloton, the pressure was consistently applied whenever the race hit a section of cross winds, with Ivan Sosa (Team Sky) and Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First) both losing contact - although the EF Education First rider was able to regain a place in the main field before the finish.

AG2R's Oliver Naesen, Stijn Vandenbergh and Tony Gallopin drove the race on, while Team Sky were well represented by Luke Rowe, with the Welshman almost singlehandedly protecting Egan Bernal before Team Sky dispatched reinforcements.

When the peloton split again, with just over 40km to go, several key GC riders including Domenico Pozzovio (Bahrain-Merida) found themselves on the wrong side of the fence. Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) and Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data)  - two riders who would have suited the flat finish - were also distanced as Team Sky, EF Education First and Jumbo-Visma patrolled the front of the bunch.

On the final climb of the stage, Warren Barguil (Team Arkea-Samsic) launched an optimistic attack, but even though he was joined by two more riders the attack failed to gain traction. A second group containing Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) made it back just after Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) had cleverly taken three bonuses seconds, but it was Team Sky and then QuickStep that threatened the sprinters' chances inside the final 10 kilometres.

First Team Sky, with Rowe, Bernal and Kwiatowski, created a gap on an already relentlessly fast peloton, before QuickStep's Philippe Gilbert launched a late attack with just over 2km remaining. Both moves were caught, with Jumbo-Visma well represented as the lead group positioned itself for the sprint.

A further two seconds in the final intermediate sprint gave Sanchez another bonus on his GC rivals, but the day belonged to Groenewegen, who leads the race from Ewan by four seconds, with Sanchez in third.

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