Paris-Nice: Démare wins rainy opening stage in photo finish

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Arnaud Démare (FDJ) claimed victory in the opening stage of Paris-Nice over the unlikeliest of sprint rivals, the Basque climber Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida), in one of the closest photo finishes likely to be seen this season.

The Frenchman, who won the opening stage last year and the opening road stage two years ago, made it a hat trick as he edged out  Izagirre on the narrow cobbled drag to the line.

Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) narrowly beat Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) in what was itself a photo finish for third place. Mike Teunissen (Sunweb) and Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors), fifth and sixth, were the other riders in the mix, with the rest of the riders from the fragmented bunch coming in at least two seconds back.

The French champion earned a 10 second time bonus, and leads Izagirre in the general classification by four seconds over the Basque rider, with Laporte at six seconds.

From a general classification perspective, the big loser was Tejay van Garderen (BMC), who abandoned the race shortly after a crash with 30 kilometres remaining. Warren Barguil, in his first WorldTour outing with Fortuneo-Samsic, lost 34 seconds, while Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Ilnur Zakarin were both caught up in a late crash and lost 1:38 and 5:14, respectively. Meanwhile Alaphilippe and Wellens stole two seconds on the rest of the overall contenders.

The two-kilometre final climb in Meudon made for an intriguing battle between punchier riders like Alaphilippe and Izagirre, and the more versatile sprinters like Démare.

Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R La Mondiale) was the only rider to attack on the climb, going clear on the steeper early slopes before slowly being dragged back on the steady and straight rise to the line.

Démare was the first to open up, going early, but Izagirre quickly surged into the lead. The Frenchman, however, slowly but surely set about dragging him back with a draining, almost slow-motion, sprint for the line. It looked like Izagirre had managed to hold on but Démare had just enough road to work with and threw for the line before keeling over sinking to the floor in exhaustion.

While he was recovering, the race jury were reviewing the photo finish and by the time they'd made their decision Démare had sufficient air in the lungs to let out a roar and celebrate with his team. Not only is it the Frenchman's first victory of the season, it's also the first win for the rebranded Groupama-FDJ team, with that new sponsorship deal coming into force today.

"I thought I was second. I wasn't expecting it so when they told me I'd won it was an explosion of joy. I was sure I was second. I threw my bike more in despair than anything," said Démare.

"At the end you're not lucid at all, so when they told me I'd won it was extraordinary. It's my first win, and to do it like that… it burned, it burned, but I never gave up. I'm super happy to win in front of my fan club and my family who are here. It's perfect."

How it unfolded

Paris-Nice is known as the 'race to the sun', taking the peloton from the rain-swept north of France to the balmier south on the cusp of spring, and the 2018 edition duly started out in miserable conditions.

Rain fell steadily throughout the day on the outskirts of Paris, where a 134.5km route linked Chatou and Meudon, barely 10km apart as the crow flies.

The riders were fully decked out in rain capes, leg warmers and shoe covers, and there was little fight to get into the day's breakaway. The three riders that did fancy it were Pierre Rolland (EF-Drapac), Jurgen Roelandts (BMC), and Pierre-Luc Périchon.

They built a lead of a few minutes but Groupama-FDJ and Quick-Step Floors controlled the peloton and kept them on a pretty tight leash.

The parcours was largely flat and the stage was more of a preamble ahead of the explosive finale. There were two other category 3 climbs on the menu, both in the second half, and Périchon attacked on both occasions to earn maximum points and the king of the mountains jersey for Monday.

An increase of pace from Mitchelton-Scott with just over 30km remaining sparked a brief period of tension, and that's when Van Garderen's hopes came to an end. The American hit the deck with four others after a touch of wheels and, though he remounted, he was soon climbing into his team car.

Things calmed down in the ensuing kilometres and the peloton let the break dangle out front until 14 kilometres to go before gearing up for the approach to the climb. Mitchelton-Scott and Astana looked interested as FDJ and Quick-Step drifted back, but it was Lotto Soudal who dominated, Andre Greipel putting in plenty of turns on the front.

The riders swung onto the banks of the Seine with 5 kilometres to go and there was another, bigger, crash in the middle of the bunch. The race went on as the now fragmented group hit the climb, but they'd stay bunched together most of the way up, with Vuillermoz the only one minded to roll the dice.

On the narrower cobbled finishing straight Démare lit up the sprint from range – a tactic that backfired last week at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. As well as overhauling Izagirre, he had to worry about Wellens charging up on the left. In the end, with Wellens running out of road and Izagirre finding just too much of it, he turned out to have judged it perfectly.

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