The first stage of Paris-Nice 2014 saw Christophe Laborie (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) leading the race for a long time but the rider from Aurillac was finally taken back by the peloton which was eager to get to a bunch sprint and like last year, Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) won the first stage in line.
With an injury on his knee after a crash, the rider/boxer* showed off his happiness after this victory.

The summary of the first stage of Paris-Nice 2014: Mantes-la-Jolie > Mantes-la-Jolie

This morning, 168 riders came to sign the registration form of the second UCI WorldTour race of the season, already under a springy sun which stayed with them the whole day long.

Just before noon, the peloton arrived at kilometer 0 of the race. Very soon after that, Christophe Laborie (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) attacked and he ended up alone at the lead of the race.
This didn't however prevent Laborie from staying ahead since the rider of the team from Brittany created a big gap quite rapidly; it reach its maximum value of 10'40" at kilometer 25.

When he arrived on top of the Côte de Vert for the first time, after 40.5 kilometers in the race, his gap was still 9'40" when Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE) took the second place behind and ahead of Perrig Quémeneur (Team Europcar).

After the first crossing of the finish line (and thus after having done a lap on the first circuit north of Mantes-la-Jolie and a first lap of the second circuit south), Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) crashed and the rider who already crashed in the second stage of Paris-Nice 2013 after having taken the yellow jersey the day before, got injured on his left knee.

When Christophe Laborie crosses the finish line again, his gap on the peloton was down to 3'45" and it became clear he was no longer very motivated to continue his fight to stay ahead. While Bouhanni dropped back to the medical car, one of the leaders of this Paris-Nice already left the race: Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) had stomach aches.

At the 3rd crossing on top of the Côte de Vert, Christophe Laborie again lost quite some time and his gap was down to 1'45", but the Jean Floc'h company, the new partner of the polka dot jersey of Paris-Nice and former main sponsor of the team which has now become Bretagne-Séché Environnement, saw its jersey go to a rider of its favourite team, since Christophe Laborie took the first King of the Mountains jersey thanks to his breakaway.

At kilometer 109, just before the forelast crossing on the Côte de Vert, the adventure ends for Christophe Laborie, who was taken back by peloton eager to battle for the intermediate sprint. This sprint was won by Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), ahead of Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) and Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) and at that point the riders still had 33 kilometers to go.

In the last climb of the Côte de Vert another crash took place, with about 15 riders on the ground, including Romain Bardet, the leader of the AG2R La Mondiale team. This crash led to a split in the peloton and the second peloton finally never managed to get back on the first peloton, thus already losing quite some time (1'09") for about fifty riders, probably reducing their chances to win the general classification to zero.

While approaching the finish line, we mainly saw the Team Giant-Shimano at the head of the race, hoping to take the victory with John Degenkolb. Nacer Bouhanni didn't want this to happen as the Dutch team thought of and the French rider, former French champion, won the sprint ahead of the German rider.

The classifications after the first stage of Paris-Nice 2014

You can find the different classifications after this first stage below:

Classification of the first stage: Mantes-la-Jolie > Mantes-la-Jolie

Hereunder you'll find the top 10 of this first stage:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - 3h53'11"
2/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano)
3/ Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
4/ Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team)
5/ Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp)
6/ Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar)
7/ Luca Wackermann (Lampre-Meridia)
8/ Fabio Felline (Trek Factory Racing)
9/ Fabio Sabatini (Cannondale)
10/ Francesco Gavazzi (Astana Pro Team)

General classification

Thanks to the bonus seconds, which the riders can take either at the finish or in the intermediate sprints, we'll progressively see an hierarchy being created in the general classification during the week. Nacer Bouhanni is the first rider to take profit of these bonus seconds:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - 3h53'01"
2/ Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +0'01"
3/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - +0'04"
4/ Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) - +0'08"
5/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - +0'09"

Points classification

Thanks to the points he took on the finish line, Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) is also leading the points classification:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - 15 points
2/ Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 14 points
3/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - 12 points
4/ José Joaquin Gil (Movistar Team) - 7 points
5/ Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) - 6 points

King of the Mountains classification

In the breakaway, Christophe Laborie (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), took the different points at the two summit crossings of the Côte de Vert which counted for this classification and he thus naturally ends this stage leading the King of the Mountains classification:

1/ Christophe Laborie (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) - 8 points
2/ Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 2 points
3/ Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) - 2 points
4/ Perrig Quémeneur (Team Europcar) - 2 points

Best young rider classification

Since Nacer Bouhanni is one of the 36 young riders of this Paris-Nice 2014, the rider of the FDJ.fr team also received the white jersey of the young riders classification:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - 3h53'01"
2/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - +0'04"
3/ Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar) - +0'10"
4/ Luca Wackermann (Lampre-Merida)
5/ Fabio Felline (Trek Factory Racing)

The second stage of Paris-Nice 2014 will take place tomorrow between Rambouillet and Saint-Georges-sur-Baulche, a long stage of 205 kilometers. If you'd like to know all details about this stage, you can check out the race route on Google Maps.

The photos of the first stage of Paris-Nice 2014

You can now check out a selection of 85 photos of this first stage of Paris-Nice 2014 in the dedicated photo section :

>> Photos of Paris-Nice 2014: 1/ Mantes-la-Jolie > Mantes-la-Jolie

* Nacer Bouhanni's initial sport was boxing and in the inter-season he regularly takes on the gloves again

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice | Paris-Nice 2014

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