Dylan Groenewegen outsprints Caleb Ewan in first stage of Paris-Nice
Mar 10 2019 10:03 pm CET
Team Jumbo-Visma
Jumbo-Visma's Dylan Groenewegen has taken the victory of the first stage of Paris-Nice. The rider crossed the finish line centimetres ahead of Caleb Ewan.
The first stage of the French race was 138.5 kilometres long from and to Saint-Germain-En-Laye. From the start of the day's schedule, it was known that the peloton was going to face the wind and that played an important part in the stage.
Amael Monard (Arkea-Samsic), Damien Gaudin (Direct Energie) and Romain Combaud (Delko Marseille Provence) formed the escape of the day. The wind forced the formation of echelons and the change of speed in the pack caused the breakaway to be over with 40 kilometres to go.
Soon after, new echelons formed and riders like Louis Meintjes, Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin), Sergio Henao (UAE Team Emirates), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Marc Soler (Movistar) were left behind.
While Yates made his return to the peloton, Team Sky worked hard for Michal Kwiatkowski to take the bonus seconds of the intermediate sprint that was at 3 kilometres from the end. Soon after, Deceuninck-Quick-Step's Philippe Gilbert changed the pace and created a gap with the pack.
The Belgian was caught in the last kilometre by a pack pulled by a Jumbo-Visma that was working for Dylan Groenewegen. The Dutchman launched his sprint behind Bora-hansgrohe's Sam Bennett and overtook him, Lotto Soudal's Caleb Ewan then came close but Groenewegen crossed the finish line just ahead of him.
Deceuninck-Quick-Step's Fabio Jakobsen, Bennett, and Trek-Segafredo's John Degenkolb completed the top five of the day. Groenewegen also took the lead of the General Classification.
Sunweb was the most affected team by the crashes as Michael Matthews and Martijn Tusveld were forced to abandon.
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