Paris-Nice: Demare wins stage 1

Arnaud Démare (FDJ) claimed the first yellow jersey of Paris-Nice after he beat Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) in a two-up sprint at the end of a breathless opening stage that saw Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) excluded from the race for drafting behind a team car.

Demare and Alaphilippe were part of an elite selection that formed in crosswinds an hour into the stage, and then fragmented on the final approach to the finish line. When Alaphilippe attacked on a short climb with a little over a kilometre to go, Démare had no hesitation in bridging across, and then claimed a convincing win in the ensuing sprint.

Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) beat Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step) in the sprint for third, 9 seconds behind, but the time gaps of greatest interest were those to the general classification contenders who had missed the initial split, as Bardet and Richie Porte (BMC) conceded 47 seconds, while Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) came home 1:04 down.

Bardet's relief at limiting the damage was short-lived, however, as the commissaires took a dim view of the way he latched back on to the chasing group after he went down in a crash with 25 kilometres remaining. Shortly after the stage, the jury announced that he had been disqualified.

Bardet, Porte and Contador, along with Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) and Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) were among those to miss the bus when the peloton was broken into echelons with 100 kilometres remaining, and for most of the afternoon, they remained locked in grim pursuit, a little over a minute down.

Up ahead, Dan Martin (Quick-Step), Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) and Sergio Henao (Sky) were the chief beneficiaries in the battle for overall victory, while the front group also contained a retinue of fast men, namely Démare, Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step), André Greipel (Lotto Soudal), Kristoff and Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie).

Just when a reduced group sprint seemed inevitable, however, FDJ began to apply pressure on a series of rises in the final five kilometres, and their work saw Coquard, Greipel and Kittel deposited out the back of the group in quick succession. In the absence of Kittel, Quick-Step turned to plan B in the shape of Alaphilippe’s punchy attack as the road kicked up just before the flamme rouge, but Démare was wise to the danger.

Eager to avoid a confrontation with Kristoff, perhaps, Démare proceeded to commit wholeheartedly to the attack, zooming straight to the front and leading all the way into the finishing straight. Though forced to lead out, Démare stalled enough to force Alaphilippe into the wind to open his sprint first. The FDJ man then came past Alaphilippe inside the final 150 metres to claim an emphatic win.

"The way the race played out changed everything for the finale," Démare said of his decision to track Alaphilippe's move. "Everybody was tired, so I didn't expect a sprint at the end. Still, it was hard to follow Alaphilippe at the end, but I managed it.

"It an attacking race today, and we took the initiative. I enjoyed the whole stage. There were fewer riders than we expected in the finale but it was a crazy race. We were chasing to bring down the break and so when we hit the crosswinds, we were already at the front before the split happened. I think that caught a lot of people out."

How it unfolded

The short opening stage of Paris-Nice, starting and finishing in Bois-d'Arcy, was essentially made up of two laps of a 74-kilometre circuit, and though the flat parcours lent itself to the sprinters, the repeated changes in direction meant that the threat of echelons on flat, wind-exposed roads was ever-present.

The peloton was flagged away in sodden conditions, but the stage began relatively calmly, with Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie) forging clear in the company of Kristian Koren (Cannondale-Drapac), Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Gatis Smukulis (Delko Marseille Provence KTM). After 50 kilometres, the quartet had a lead of six minutes, but behind, the relative détente was broken in the crosswinds.

FDJ, already at the front to keep tabs on the break's lead, were joined by a strong Quick-Step delegation, and their combined efforts tore the peloton asunder, splitting it into four groups, with Contador, Porte, Bardet, Zakarin, Yates, Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) among those caught behind.

Despite the chaos, the chasers managed to keep their deficit to manageable dimensions at first, and shortly after the race returned to Bois-d'Arcy for the first time, Porte, Contador et al had closed to within half a minute of the front echelon.

Shortly after the Démare group absorbed the early escapees with 60 kilometres remaining, however, the gap yawned outwards all over again, with Lotto Soudal particularly to the fore as Greipel sacrificed his sprint chances to put in a wholehearted afternoon of work in the service of Gallopin.

Other riders in the group, which numbered 29 riders at that point, included Sky's Sergio Henao and Luke Rowe, six Quick-Step riders, among them Alaphilippe, Dan Martin, Kittel and Gilbert, as well as Gorka Izaguirre (Movistar). As the gap nudged out towards 1:25 inside the final 30 kilometres, however, they began to lose some bodies, including Ion Izaguirre (Bahrain-Merida).

Behind, BMC, Trek-Segafredo and Orica-Scott all contributed to the pursuit but it wasn't until Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) put in a series of mammoth turns that they finally began to claw back some of the ground on the leaders. Bardet's tumble with 25 kilometres remaining cost the chasers some of their firepower. The Frenchman succeeded in chasing back, thinking he had salvaged his overall aspirations, only to be excluded after the finish.

Démare sits atop the general classification, four seconds clear of Alaphillipe thanks his winner's time bonus, while Tony Gallopin, Dan Martin and Sergio Henao, 19 seconds back, are the best-placed of the men with designs on the final podium.

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