Boom surprises in Paris-Nice prologue

German veteran Jens Voigt was second, three seconds behind Rabobank's Boom, while American rider Levi Leipheimer took third.

Slovakia'sPeter Sagan, the event's youngest competitor at 20 years old, finishedin fifth place 10 seconds off the pace, while defending Paris-Nicechampion Luis Leon Sanchez trailed the 24-year-old leader by 12 seconds.

"Itwas quite a thing for me coming from cyclo-cross. It was much colderand you need to immediately find your rhythm and adapt to the cobbledsurfaces," 24-year-old Boom said.

The Dutchman admitted thatwhile he was unlikely to finish first overall in the race, he said hewas aiming to hang on to the yellow jersey until Thursday's stage.

Boom won last year's Tour of Belgium and also won a stage in the Tour of Spain.

"I came to (the Paris-Nice) compete in the one day classics, such as the Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix race," he added.

Therewas one casualty as Belgian rider Gert Steegmans was blown off his bikeby a gust of wind which resulted in him breaking his collarbone.

Pre-race favourite and Tour de France champion Alberto Contador had to be content with fourth place, also six seconds behind.

Richie Porte, riding for Team Saxo Bank was the best placed Australian, 22 seconds behind Boom in 18th place.

Monday's stage sees the peloton ride off from Saint Arnoult-en-Yvelines to Contres.

Prologue and general classification: 8km, Montfort-l’Amaury.

1Lars Boom (Ned) Rabobank 0:10:56, 2 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank0:00:03, 3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team RadioShack 0:00:06, 4 AlbertoContador (Spa) Astana, 5 Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas - Doimo 0:00:10, 6Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo Test Team, 7 David Millar (GBr) Garmin -Transitions 0:00:11, 8 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne0:00:12, 9 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas - Doimo 0:00:13, 10 SamuelSanchez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:00:15.