Difficult weather conditions marked the first stage of Paris-Nice 2017 and were the reason why the peloton got reduced rather quickly after the start of the stage. Despite the presence of several sprinters in the group which survived these weather conditions, the victory was finally decided in a duo sprint, thanks to a surprise attack by Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) in the short climb leading to the finish. Followed only by Arnaud Démare (FDJ), the last mentioned rider managed to win the stage and thus take the first yellow jersey.

The summary of the stage between Bois d'Arcy and Bois d'Arcy

The biggest part of the first stage of Paris-Nice 2017 with start and finish in Bois d'Arcy took place under quite bad weather conditions, over a distance of 148.5 kilometers (two laps on a circuit west of the city).

It started with a big downpour right from the real start of the race, and at kilometer 5 a group of 4 riders got away from the peloton, with Kristijan Koren (Cannondale Drapac Professional Cycling Team), Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Gatis Smukulis (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) and this turned out to be the right breakaway right from the start!

Quickly building up their gap, up to 6 minutes, on a peloton which completely fell apart due to the weather conditions. After about 80 kilometers, the leading group was taken back by a group of 23 riders in which we found among others the sprinters Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha Alpecin), André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal), Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors), Arnaud Démare (FDJ) and Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie).

In the second climb of the only official difficulty of the stage, Romain Hardy went to pick up the points like he did in the first lap. The rider of the Fortuneo-Vital Concept team is thus the first rider to wear the polka dot jersey as the King of the Mountains tonight. The group with the favourites Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) and Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) arrived there 55 seconds later and while Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) managed to get back on this group, the French rider crashed. He did however manage to get back to the group again and according to Vincent Lavenu, the manager of his team, this crash was apparently without much importance, even though this remained to be confirmed by the medical staff. However, in order to come back to this group the second time and cross the finish line at the 17th place at 47 seconds, the French rider used the cars to speed up and after the finish he got punished for that, being put out of the race. One of the favourites of the race thus sees this 75th edition of Paris-Nice end right after the first stage ...

While we were expecting a first explanation among the remaining sprinters anyway, the short climb leading to the finish finally led to another scenario: in the last kilometer Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) decided to attack in this climb, and only Arnaud Démare (FDJ) managed to follow him. In the last meters of the stage, Julian Alaphilippe tried the impossible but despite his boldness, Démare showed who was the strongest and the sprinter of the FDJ team quite easily won this first stage of Paris-Nice 2017 (without the other sprinters being present)!

The video summary of the first stage of Paris-Nice 2017: Bois d'Arcy > Bois d'Arcy

The classifications of Paris-Nice 2017 after the first stage

Here are the classifications after this first stage:

Stage classification

Here's the top 10 of this first stage:

1/ Arnaud Démare (FDJ) - 3h22'43"
2/ Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors)
3/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha Alpecin) - +0'09"
4/ Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors)
5/ Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Vital Concept)
6/ Daniel Martin (Quick-Step Floors)
7/ Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal)
8/ Marco Haller (Team Katusha Alpecin)
9/ Sergio Henao (Team Sky)
10/ Rudy Molard (FDJ)

General classification

With this stage victory, Arnaud Démare (FDJ) is logically also the first to wear the yellow jersey:

1/ Arnaud Démare (FDJ) - 3h22'33"
2/ Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) - +0'04"
3/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha Alpecin) - +0'15"
4/ Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) - +0'16"
5/ Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) - +0'17"

Points classification

In the points classification of the green jersey, Arnaud Démare is also leading:

1/ Arnaud Démare (FDJ) - 15 points
2/ Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) - 12 points
3/ Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) - 10 points
4/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha Alpecin) - 9 points
5/ Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) - 7 points

King of the Mountains classification

In the classification for the polka dot jersey we thus find Romain Hardy leading, since he took the maximum number of points at the two climbs of the Côte de Senlisse:

1/ Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) - 8 points
2/ Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie) - 2 points
3/ Luke Rowe (Team Sky) - 2 points
4/ Kristijan Koren (Cannondale Drapac Professional Cycling Team) - 1 point
5/ Jelle Wallays (Lotto-Soudal) - 1 point

Best young rider classification

Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) thus didn't take the stage victory but he can still be happy with the white jersey as the best young rider:

1/ Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) - 3h22'43"
2/ Davide Formolo (Cannondale Drapac Professional Cycling Team) - +1'04"
3/ Simon Yates (Orica-Scott)
4/ Sven Erik Byström (Team Katusha Alpecin) - +1'57"
5/ Magnus Cort Nielsen (Orica-Scott) - +2'56"

What's next: the second stage Rochefort-en-Yvelines > Amilly - 195 km

Tomorrow, the second stage will start in Rochefort-en-Yvelines. You can find all details about the race route of this second stage of Paris-Nice 2017 on Google Maps!

photos: © A.S.O. / Alex Broadway

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice | Paris-Nice 2017

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