Paris-Nice (st. 1)
Top-ten finish for Spanish sprinter from Movistar Team after stressful, fast finale in Contres. Kristoff (KAT) wins; Kwiatkowski (EQS) stays in yellow
It was quite a calm day for the Movistar Team on stage one of Paris-Niza, a 198km flat route between Saint-Rémy-Lès-Chevreuse and Contres which ended almost fifty minutes behind schedule, with the first three hours of racing covered under 35kph average. The telephone squad did not have any problems to complete the race with its eight riders into the main field and even contested the bunch sprint with José Joaquín Rojas.
The Spaniard was well place with 1km remaining, yet had more troubles to keep his position as several lead-out riders came from behind. Rojas thus had to make an extra effort to finish in 6th place, behind Norwegian Alexander Kristoff (KAT). In turn, Gorka Izagirre and Rubén Fernández keep their overall top-25 places, the GC likely to stay mainly the same, shouldn't wind change it, after another flat journey on stage two (Saint-Aignan to Saint-Amand-Montrond, 172km.)