Prologue Paris-Nice 2010: a surprisingly strong Lars Boom (Rabobank)!

Monday 08 March 2010 at 01h08

This afternoon the prologue of Paris-Nice 2010 took place in Montfort-l'Amaury. The route of the individual time trial seemed quite simple on a map, but it proposed a paved part and the climb of the Côte de Boursouffle right from the start.

Where everyone was expecting some Spanish fireworks, it finally ended in a Dutch party with Lars Boom (Rabobank) taking not only the stage victory but also all jerseys.

The sky was clear and the sun was shining but the temperatures didn't go higher than 3 to 4 degrees Celsius. While the riders were complaing about the cold wind (I confirm, it was very cold!) at the start, which reduced the effect of their warming up, they really only felt it in the last 2 kilometers towards the finish because they had it blowing in their face there ...

There was a small problem with the start of Danilo Napolitano (Team Katusha), but the Italian rider didn't finally rider the prologue, while pushing away Svein Tuft (Garmin-Transitions) at the start to get off the ramp. Indeed, the Italian rider didn't come to the start despite the numerous calls for him to come, so he left with over 3 minutes late on schedule.

The Spanish rider Xavier Tondo of the Cervélo TestTeam was the first rider who took a reference time at 11'06" (he finally finishes 6th) which will hold until the young (the youngest even in this Paris-Nice 2010!) Peter Sagan (photo) of the Liquigas-Doimo team gets only a few milliseconds under that time.

40 riders than finish the 8 kilometers with times which are above the one for the young Slovakian rider, until the Dutch giant of the Rabobank team, Lars Boom, finishes. And he not only beats that time, he even gets 10 seconds under it! If any one still needed proof, the former cyclo-cross World Champion (2008) proved once more he has his place on the road.

Neither the time trial specialists (Millar, Leipheimer, ...), nor the favourites for the final victory (Contador, Valverde, Sanchez, ...) manage to get under the time of Boom. There where Alberto Contador still won the prologue in Amilly for Paris-Nice 2009, he only finishes 4th at 6 seconds from Boom this year. He doesn't have to worry for his chances for the final victory though because he has exactly the same time as Levi Leipheimer and is 6 seconds ahead of 2009 winner, Luis Léon Sanchez.

We than had to wait for the forelast rider to finish to know the number 2 of this time trial: Jens Voigt of the Saxo Bank team who finished at 3 seconds from the winner.

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All jerseys for Boom

Lars Boom is one of the young riders and is thus ranked in the ranking of best young riders. Since today's stage contained a climb of the 3rd category, the polka dot jersey was handed out right from this first stage and since Lars Boom already had the best time on the top of that climb, he does leads all classifications and the official ceremony was thus only about him (the other riders already left for their hotel!) where he got the medal of the stage winner, the yellow jersey, the green jersey, the polka dot jersey and the white jersey.

Gert Steegmans out

The Belgian rider of the Radioshack team, Gert Steegmans, fell in a descent. He got surprised by a gust of wind while he was going down at about 75 km/h.
The ambulance, which could not leave because it was behind a following car at the start, took 12 minutes to arrive at the place where it happened and transported the Belgian rider to the hospital. The analysis has shown he has a broken collarbone on the left and he will thus not be able to participate in the spring classics.

The photos of the first stage of Paris-Nice 2010

If you would like to see the photos I took during the prologue of the 68th edition of the Race to the sun, you can click on the following link:
> The photos of the first stage of Paris-Nice 2010 in Montfort-l'Amaury

I also propose you to discover all practical details of this Paris-Nice 2010:
> The Paris-Nice 2010 route, profiles, route and time schedules and Google Maps/Google Earth
> The participating riders in Paris-Nice 2010 and their numbers

The Paris-Nice 2010 classifications after the prologue

After this first stage, the classifications are as follows:

Overall classification (yellow jersey)

Here's the top 10 of the general classification:
1/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 10'56"
2/ Jens Voigt (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'03"
3/ Levi Leipheimer (Team Radioshack) - +0'06"
4/ Alberto Contador (Astana) - +0'06"
5/ Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) - +0'10"
6/ Xavier Tondo (Cervélo TestTeam) - +0'10"
7/ David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) - +0'11"
8/ Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'12"
9/ Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) - +0'13"
10/ Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +0'15"

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Classification by points (green jersey)

1/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 25 points
2/ Jens Voigt (Team Saxo Bank) - 22 points
3/ Levi Leipheimer (Team Radioshack) - 20 points
4/ Alberto Contador (Astana) - 18 points
5/ Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) - 16 points

Classification of best climber (polka dot jersey)

Lars Boom also leads the classification of best climber and thus also got the polka dot jersey.

Best young rider classification (white jersey)

1/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 10'56"
2/ Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) - +00'10"
3/ Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) - +00'13"
4/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - +00'20"
5/ Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank) - +00'22"

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice | Paris-Nice 2010