Sonic Boom hits prologue opener

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Lars Boom only had to wait a little over an hour this afternoon to be crowned winner of the Paris-Nice prologue, but it must have felt like an eternity to the Dutchman.

After posting the day's best time of 10:56 on the sunny, windblown 8km course in Montfort L'Amaury, 20km southwest of Paris, the second-year Rabobank rider retreated from the zero-degree weather to the comforts of his team bus and changed clothes. Then he tried to do anything to take his mind off the reality that over 70 of the world's best riders had yet to tackle the course.

"I just waited on the bus and sat there," Boom told Cyclingnews after the race. "And I watched a little TV."

Expecting to be topped, all he saw were late-afternoon challenges falling short. First from Levi Leipheimer (Team RadioShack), who took third place. Then two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador (Astana), who matched Leipheimer's effort. Jens Voigt (Team Saxo Bank), prologue winner in 2005, came the closest, finishing three seconds off the pace in second place.

As the sun set on the first day of Paris-Nice, the Dutchman stood above them all.

"It's really nice to beat these guys, but also a little bit crazy, too," said Boom, who won Stage 15 of the Vuelta a España last fall.

A former cyclo-cross star and the current Dutch national champion in the specialty, Boom was able to tame a tough course that started uphill onto a 200m section of Classics-esque cobbles.

The riders then had to tackle the category 3 Côte de Boursouffle, hit a plateau and finish slightly uphill at the top of the town. A strong headwind in the last two kilometers proved problematic for many riders, giving them an extra obstacle towards the finish.

"For sure, my background in cyclo-cross helped today, because of the cobbles and full speed uphill from the start," said Boom, 24, who also picked up the white jersey for best young rider.

His starting position may have helped as well; Boom went off 79th of 176 riders and said after the race that the wind may have been less severe when he was on the course. Though the elements may have deterred the race favourites from wearing yellow today, many put themselves in a great position for the rest of the week.

All eyes were on Alberto Contador, who famously slipped at the end of last year's race, failing to eat enough in the penultimate stage and handing the GC to compatriot Luis Léon Sánchez (Caisse d'Epargne).

The Spaniard was the fourth-to-last starter and, despite an earpiece malfunction rendering him unable to hear direction from his team car, immediately showed the form that won him the Vuelta ao Algarve. And he came close to delivering in the stretch, his red Spanish TT champion kit gleaming in the mid-afternoon sun as he made the final push.

He managed to finish in fourth, just milliseconds behind Levi Leipheimer, the '09 Tour of California champion who was beset by injuries in the second half of last season. David Millar (Garmin - Transitions) also looked strong, finishing 11 seconds back, and defending champion Luis Léon Sánchez, the last rider to start the race today, ended up 12 seconds off the pace.

Czech rider Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas - Doimo), winner of this year's Giro di Sardegna, and '08 Olympic road race champion Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel - Euskadi) finished ninth and tenth respectively.

All this points to a great finish headed into Nice, but it's unlikely that today's star, Lars Boom, will be in yellow by that point. He and Rabobank will not go down without a fight, though.

They've got a 201.5km flat stage tomorrow from St.-Arnoult-En-Yvelines to Contres and then just slightly hillier days Tuesday and Wednesday as the race heads south towards the Auvergne region. It's on Thursday, with the category 1 La Croix Nerve, when the fireworks will start.

"We have a good team here, but not the best climbers," Boom said. "In the flat stages the next two days I think we can defend the yellow jersey successfully."

Cyclo-cross rules

It was a great day for the all-terrain guys. Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) was actually in second for a bulk of the day before finishing fifth overall, 10 seconds back of Lars Boom. Like Boom, he was a former cyclo-cross champion before converting to the road. The 20-year old Slovakian won his country's 2007 national championship and the '08 junior mountain bike world championship.

Steegmans crashes; will have surgery

RadioShack's Gert Steegmans, who suffered a concussion two weeks ago at Algarve, had more bad luck today when he suffered a broken collarbone during his prologue run. It is believed that today's strong winds played a part in the crash, which occurred halfway through his race.

He's scheduled to have surgery at a hospital in Belgium tomorrow, according to race officials.

On the bright side, RadioShack had two strong performances today from Americans Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner, who finished third and sixteenth respectively. For a while, Horner was in seventh place overall.

"It was a decent run for me today on this Classics-like course," he said.

Despite the loss of Steegmans, who won two stages of Paris-Nice in 2008, the team will work in support of Leipheimer.

"A beautiful race"

Garmin's David Millar was briefly in the top five this afternoon, before Leipheimer and Voigt pushed him back to a seventh place finish. And afterwards, he was very pleased with his effort in the difficult conditions.

"It was all about pace judgment today because of the course. We had real cobbles, which are really tough on a time trial bike, and then the last part was uphill into the headwind," he said.

And he also enjoyed the venue, saying it was more interesting visually than the last two prologues at Paris-Nice.

"I really enjoyed it today, it was a beautiful race," he said. "This town was great and the venue was spectacular."

Garmin - Transitions had good performances from other riders, including Canadian Svein Tuft, who finished 17th overall, but one of the team's favorites, American Christian Vande Velde finished 42 seconds back. He injured his ankle in the Vuelta ao Algarve and is on the mend.

"I'm happy we had a good result and I think we're motivated to be in good form," said Millar. "With Christian working to regain his fitness I'm hoping we'll have a good finish.