De Gendt holds on in Houdan

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Vacansoleil's Thomas De Gendt created a surprise at the end of stage 1 in Paris-Nice. A member of the three-man breakaway with FDJ's Jérémy Roy and Leopard Trek's Jens Voigt, the 24-year-old Belgian resisted to the return of the peloton on the hilly uphill finish, as well as the Frenchman who came second. The result left favourites Heinrich Haussler, Peter Sagan and Matt Goss empty handed.

Stage winner De Gendt could hardly believe his good fortune in taking the yellow jersey in a race of the level of Paris-Nice - clearly the biggest result of his career to date.

"The last six kilometres with a tail wind were in our favour," De Gendt said, but added, "the peloton didn't catch us because we were simply too strong." The Belgian intends to defend his jersey for one or two days but no more, and played down his chances to win Paris-Nice, as he knows that better climbers will take over eventually.

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The so-called "race to the sun" justified its nickname as it kicked off from Houdan in the province of the Yvelines under clear skies and cool temperatures, conditions that are expected to continue for the coming three days in contrast to recent editions of the race which have had stages shortened because of snow.

Europcar's Damien Gaudin and Euskaltel's Gorka Izaguirre were the first men to attack at kilometre 15, and no one was keen to chase them. They built up a five minute lead in less than 10 kilometres and reached the only climb of the first two stages with that advantage. The Frenchman, who is more known as a track rider, got the first polka dot jersey of Paris-Nice as he out-sprinted his Basque companion at the top of the category 3 côte de Septeuil at kilometre 24.5.

Just after covering 31.6km only in the first hour of racing due to the windy conditions, they reached their maximum of lead of 8:15, but HTC-Highroad quickly decided to take the responsibility for the chase early and the gap went down to 4:50 by km 45. The deficit of the bunch later stabilised around three minutes as Team Sky and Garmin-Cervélo led the charge behind Gaudin and Izaguirre.

Only two kilometres after the break was caught at kilometre 113, Roy, Voigt and De Gendt took their chance. With a brisk cross-tailwind, the fight was on, and echelons were formed taking riders like David Moncontié off the back while Team Sky's recruit Rigoberto Uran crashed and lost a significant time. The leading trio didn't seem to have much chance of succeeding as they didn't secure more than 50 seconds advantage. Roy, Voigt and De Gendt, all three strong rouleurs, didn't give up and believed in the opportunity until the end.

"I wanted to isolate myself at the front as it was becoming extremely nervous in the bunch", described Roy who initiated the breakaway. "The three of us combined forces really well and we played with the peloton. I'm not disappointed of losing to De Gendt because he was definitely the strongest of our group. I thought I was not yet at my best after the crash I had last week, but I didn't feel too bad at the end. I'm here to support our captains Pierrick Fedrigo and Sandy Casar and look for opportunities like today."

The uphill finish eventually played in the trio's favour. They had a 13 second lead under the red kite of the last kilometre, which would not have been enough, had the finale been on flat roads, but they resisted the chase led by HTC-Highroad who took over from Quick Step at the very end.

"Quick Step did a lot of work but it was just a little bit too late for us to catch the break", Goss explained. "Unfortunately, we missed a bit of time, so at the 400 metres mark, I went on the front. I had no option but to go, because it was the only way to catch them, but at 70 metres, I run out of gas, I started to blow. There were good strong riders at the front and it was difficult to get organised with the wind."

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