Christophe Laporte leads in Primoz Roglic and Wout van Aert as Jumbo dominate Stage 1 at Paris-Nice

A mighty act of demolition from Team Jumbo Visma in the closing kilometres delivered them to a seldom seen one-two-three on the opening stage of Paris-Nice. Christophe Laporte, in only his second ride since joining from Cofidis, was given the honour of the stage victory, and with it the first yellow jersey of the race.

The result gave overall favourite Primoz Roglic a significant early advantage over his GC rivals in the Race to the Sun. All on a stage that was originally touted as — and looked like — one for the pure sprinters.

Ad/> And though looks are often somewhat deceiving, stage 1 was certainly specked with opportunities to take a reasonable early lead in the king of the mountains competition — and with it the first polka jersey. Total climbing for the day was recorded in the roadbook as a manageable, but not insignificant, 1723 metres.

Strade BiancheStrade Bianche – Who’s riding? Who can take Mathieu van der Poel’s crown?03/03/2022 AT 18:26 Nevertheless, only two riders made a concerted effort to target pois: Matt Holmes of Lotto Soudal, and Aime De Gent (Intermarché — Wanty — Gobert Matériaux.) Holmes went first, just a few kilometres out from the official start, before being joined by De Gendt (not that one). With the peloton content to let them go, the pair soon established an advantage of over a minute The Briton led over the first official climb, the 1.8km, 5.8% gradient Côte de Vétheuil, as the peloton cruised along, with the race covering the 37.38km in the first hour of racing.

Holmes again claimed maximum three points, over the similarly shaped Côte de la route des Crêtes (category 3) before the wind picked up, creating the risk/opportunity for echelons and waking up the peloton. This injection of