Henderson wins windy stage to Contres

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Greg Henderson (Team Sky) triumphed on a dramatic opening stage of Paris-Nice. The New Zealander won a sprint finish in Contres, but only after surviving a barrage of crashes, cross-winds and attacks that saw several major favourites lose more time to the overall leader Lars Boom (Rabobank).

Grega Bole (Lampre-Farnese Vini) finished second on the stage, with Jeremy Galland (Saur-Sojasun) rounding out the podium.

"It was a headwind and it was like a slow motion sprint and I was lucky to get it on the line," said Henderson. "It’s beautiful to win here and to win such a beautiful race is a real honour."

"It’s a credit to the high management of the team who put the team together; they selected a group of great guys. We’re not here for show, we’re here to win bike races and we’ve had a great start to the season."

Former cyclo-cross World Champion and overnight race leader Boom filed further evidence of his ability on the road as he made his way into a selection of 15 riders that finished 17 seconds ahead of the peloton.

What had been expected to be a fairly straightforward day for the sprinters turned into anything but, as a nervous peloton collided first with the windy conditions and then each other.

Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) and Alberto Contador (Astana) were among the names to crackle through race radio as having crashed. The latter came down just three kilometres from the end of the stage, but was able to quickly remount and rejoin the peloton.

Their mutual presence in the main group saw both suffer the same 17 second loss as and the pair now sit 25 seconds adrift of Boom, in seventh and eighth place overall, respectively.

In contrast, David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) made the late-race selection and leapt from seventh overall into third. Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) also moved up, now fourth overall, while Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank) strengthened his grip on second.

Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas Doimo) is sixth, and stage winner Henderson is now seventh.

Earlier in the stage Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil) and Albert Timmer (Skil-Shimano) leapt out of the peloton after just four kilometres and quickly built themselves an advantage of six minutes by the 30 kilometre mark.

A turn of the screws by Rabobank reduced the gap by half, but by the feed station at 90 kilometres the gap had grown once more to a little over five minutes.

With lunch in their bellies, the peloton re-doubled their efforts to reclaim the duo ahead. Italian Danilo Napolitano (Katusha) took a tumble, but while he was able to quickly rejoin, it served as an omen for what was to come.

Wind in their faces

The peloton ended the pursuit at 150 kilometres, the leaders having spent around 145 of those away from their colleagues. The capture coincided with a turning point in the race. After a fairly direct journey from their start point, the race swung left towards their final destination, and into the wind that had supported their journey so far.

On narrow roads, a crash in the peloton brought down a number of riders including Euskaltel-Euskadi captain Samuel Sanchez. Unfortunately for the Spaniard, the incident occurred just moments after Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano) had attacked.

With the peloton in no mood to let the breakaway steal a march, the pressure immediately turned on for another chase. Yet another crash in the peloton saw Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) come down.

With the pressure at the front and the wind at the side, dropped wheels began to morph into gaps as several distinct echelons formed in the roads across the open countryside.

Opportunity knocks, Caisse d'Epargne answer

Recognizing the potential benefit of the situation, Caisse d'Epargne lifted the pace at the front. At 16 kilometres to go Gilbert and Veelers were recaptured. While the peloton began to gradually reform behind, the Spanish Armada that headed the front group continued to push - a selection was formed.

The leaders contained four from the Spanish team: Luis-Leon Sanchez, Vicente Garcia Acosta, José Ivan Gutierrez and Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne), Jens Voigt (Team Saxo Bank), Tony Martin (Team HTC - Columbia), Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas - Doimo), Lars Boom (Rabobank), Nicolas Roche (Ag2R-La Mondiale), David Millar (Garmin - Transitions), Serguei Ivanov and Alexandr Kolobnev (Team Katusha) and Greg Henderson (Sky Professional Cycling Team).

“Our team manager Yvon Ledanois knew the finale of the stage perfectly because he came here a few weeks ago to see what the last kilometers looked like. He told us that at 23 kilometers from the finish, as soon as we turned right, the wind could play a very important role and that we had to be in front of the bunch right there,” said Valverde.

“Things went exactly the way he told us, and we gave it everything to make a break in the bunch. The gap on the line reached 17 seconds. It is important most of all because many rivals finished with the second group. Today we showed Team Caisse d’Epargne is a great one and that we will try to be in front every day."

Those that stood to benefit the most from the break quickly became apparent; Voigt and Millar both regular visitors to the front of the group. As the kilometres ticked by it was clear that the peloton were involved more in damage limitation than any serious attempt to catch the leaders.

With three-to-go Alberto Contador (Astana) and Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo TestTeam crashed.

Ahead, Ivanov (Katusha) shot out of the lead group as the red kite passed overhead. Roche (Ag2R-La Mondiale) led the pursuit before Martin (HTC-Columbia) launched an attack of his own. With a headwind tearing away at the German's slim advantage, it was Grega Bole (Lampre) and Henderson (Sky) who replied with the most powerful response.

Henderson inched away at the Slovenian's slim advantage, eclipsing his wheel in the final metres. A final lunge iced the cake as the Sky sprinter took the biggest win since last year's Vuelta.

"It was tough, nervous but it was OK," Boom said at the finish. 

"The team managed to keep the race under control. In the end, Valverde attacked and I was able to go with them. In the end, it was a hard day but a good day. In Holland, we have lots of Classic like this with crosswinds, the team knows how to handle this."