Paris-Nice: Schachmann wins stage 1

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Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) won a pulsating stage during the opening day of Paris-Nice on a day that saw the peloton battered by crosswinds, cobbles and echelons. 

The German champion won from a four-man group with Dylan Teuns (Bahrain McLaren) and Tiesj Benoot (Team Sunweb) rounding out the top three. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep), who had been active in a 35km break alongside Benoot, finished fourth after running out of steam in the sprint.

"I'm really happy," Schachmann said. "Actually, everything turned out a bit bad for me at first because just before the tailwind section there was an island in the middle of the road and I was on the left, so in the crosswinds I was almost in last position. 

"But I made it step by step, and I have to thank my team, because at one point Peter [Sagan] really saved me, and then Felix [Grosschartner] did a fantastic job," he said. "It was the first really hard race for me this year so I didn't know how I was. The legs were a bit painful, but at the end I felt the others had more pain, so that gave me confidence."

The win gave Schachmann – who was originally down for Tirreno-Adriatico – the first race lead in the Race to the Sun, but Alaphilippe picked up six bonus seconds during his breakaway that at least provide him with a platform for later in the race. Cees Bol won the sprint for fifth in the peloton. 

In the overall standings, Schachmann leads Benoot by two seconds, with Teuns at four seconds. Alaphilippe sits seven seconds off yellow, but all the other GC contenders are at least 24 adrift.

Schachmann owed his win to a late attack on the cobbled climb before the finish. He was the first rider on Teuns’ wheel when the Belgian attacked, and the pair quickly linked up with Benoot and Alaphilippe in the closing stages. 

The German attacked immediately but was closed down before Benoot tried with a move of his own. That was closed down by Alaphilippe, before Teuns opened the sprint. However, it was Schachmann who had the power and the resolve to take the win.

"On the last climb I went with Dylan and we bridged across," Schachmann said. "It was a crazy last corner, but somehow I managed it and I'm super happy to win this for Bora-Hansgrohe. I planned to go to Italy but France has turned out pretty well."

How it unfolded

The wind and rain were constant features throughout the stage and even when Romain Combaud, leading Jonathan Hivert, built up a healthy lead of five minutes, the peloton were never far from exploding into action. 

After an early set of splits the race truly came to life inside the final 65km. Warren Barguil and Romain Bardet were both involved in a crash on the left side of a roundabout, with both riders struggling to re-start the race. 

Bardet was the first back on his bike, but it took Barguil several minutes and two further stops before he eventually began to chase. By that point the early break had long been caught, and in the ferocious crosswinds the peloton split into several echelons. 

The lead contained a raft of Sunweb and Deceuninck-QuickStep riders but few of the GC contenders. Nikias Arndt, Tiesj Benoot, Cees Bol, Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb), Julian Alaphilippe, Kasper Asgreen, Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Nairo Quintana, Connor Swift (Arkea-Samsic), Olivier Le Gac, Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Felix Grosschartner, Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis), Krists Neilands (Israel-Start Up Nation), and Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels) were all present as EF Pro Cycling and Lotto Soudal fought to keep the gap at under 30 seconds.

With 45km to go the leaders had 25 seconds on the EF group as the rest of the peloton struggled to regain any form of contact with the front of the race. With Sunweb and QuickStep full of intent, and with numbers on their side, the leaders maintained their advantage until around 35km to go, when a slight rise before an intermediate sprint saw Alaphilippe and Benoot take off. 

Nairo Quintana briefly tried to match them but just as the EF echelon made contact with the front of the race Benoot and Alaphilippe pushed out a fresh advantage of 18 seconds. Alaphilippe took the maximum of three bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, but with another sprint coming up with 15km to go the initial move designed through little more than optimism suddenly began to take shape as the Frenchman and Benoot started to take turns.

Allowing such a potent pair off the front in any race is a danger, and it was unsurprising to see both Bora and Bahrain McLaren attempt to hold the leaders at 40 seconds. Ivan Garcia Cortina laid down his chances of competing in the sprint by sacrificing his hopes for Teuns, but with 13km to go the two leaders still had 38 seconds, and more importantly, Alaphilippe had picked up another three seconds in bonuses. It was time to act.

The peloton still had the final climb and the uphill section of cobbles on which to launch a final assault, and with the lead slowly coming down to a more manageable 18 seconds with 4.4km to go the rest of the field at least had hope on their side. It would still take a colossal effort from Teuns and Schachmann to make the juncture with 2.3km to go, but even at that point it was unclear who the strongest rider was.

The two new members of the breakaway were obviously the fresher of the four, but when Benoot kicked for home with 1.1km to go it looked as though the Belgian would take a rare win. However, he was reeled in by Teuns before Schachmann pounced.