Stage 1: Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines - Contres 203km
Paris-Nice 1: Greg Henderson gives Sky another win
By AFP & Cyclingnews.com
New Zealand cyclist Greg Henderson won the first stage of the Paris-Nice race on Monday for the British-based Team Sky.
The 33-year-old, a gold medal winner at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, beat Slovenia's Grega Bole in a sprint finish to clinch first place.
"This year I picked up Sky's first victory (the Criterium before the Tour Down Under), but it's great to win this time after such a nerve-wracking day," Henderson said. "We spent our time accelerating, braking, then accelerating again. I was lucky to find myself out in front," he added.
But Henderson could not do enough to take the yellow jersey from yesterday's prologue stage winner, Rabobank's Dutch rider Lars Boom.
France's Romain Feillu and The Netherlands' Albert Timmer led the peloton for most of the stage before fading away after 146 kilometres (100 miles) of the 201-kilometre course.
Spain's two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador crossed the line despite falling three kilometres from the end.
"My worry is not the time lost on the first stage, even though I would have liked it to have turned out differently, but the pain," said the Madrid-born Astana rider, who hurt his left thigh in the fall.
"It is not the 17 seconds lost that concerns me right now but mainly how I will feel tomorrow (Tuesday) morning," the 27-year-old added.
Fellow challengers Pierre Rolland and Levi Leipheimer also took a tumble but both managed to recover to finish the stage.
Tuesday's second stage is a 201km ride between Contres and Limoges.
© AFP 2010
For full results, report and photos, visit Cyclingnews.com
STAGE 1 RESULTS
| 1 Gregory Henderson (NZl|Sky Professional Cycling Team) | 4:22:17 | |
| 2 Grega Bole (Slo|Lampre - Farnese Vini) | ||
| 3 Jeremy Galland (Fra|Saur - Sojasun) | ||
| 4 Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus|Team Katusha) | ||
| 5 Alejandro Valverde (Spa|Caisse d'Epargne) | ||
| 6 Nicolas Roche (Irl|AG2R La Mondiale) | ||
| 7 Jens Voigt (Ger|Team Saxo Bank) | ||
| 8 Marco Marcato (Ita|Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) | ||
| 9 Tony Martin (Ger|Team HTC - Columbia) | ||
| 10 Roman Kreuziger (Cze|Liquigas - Doimo) | ||
| General classification after stage 1 | ||
| 1 Lars Boom (Ned|Rabobank) | 4:33:11 | |
| 2 Jens Voigt (Ger|Team Saxo Bank) | 0:00:05 | |
| 3 David Millar (GBr|Garmin - Transitions) | 0:00:13 | |
| 4 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa|Caisse d'Epargne) | 0:00:14 | |
| 5 Roman Kreuziger (Cze|Liquigas - Doimo) | 0:00:15 | |
| 6 Gregory Henderson (NZl|Sky Professional Cycling Team) | 0:00:20 | |
| 7 Levi Leipheimer (USA|Team RadioShack) | 0:00:25 | |
| 8 Alberto Contador (Spa|Astana) | ||
| 9 Peter Sagan (Svk|Liquigas - Doimo) | 0:00:29 | |
| 10 Xavier Tondo (Spa|Cervélo Test Team) |
