Catch up with all the action from Paris-Nice live and free nightly, or jump onto SBS On Demand for all the replays!
Belgian champion Tim Merlier made the best of an eventful first stage of Paris-Nice around La Verrière, outside Paris, to outsprint the rest of the bunch and take the lead of the ‘Race to the Sun’.
Already a winner of stages in the Tour of Oman and the UAE Tour this season, the Soudal Quick Step fast man was riding Paris-Nice for the first time and he wated no time as he overpowered Sam Bennett (Bora Hansgrohe) and Mads Pedersen (Trek Segafredo) on the line to take the first yellow jersey of the 2023 edition.
“It was a great effort from the team, and they believed in me and today and it was a great lead-out,” Merlier said. “It was a hard day certainly, with a lot of strength in the peloton and the steep climb 9km from the finish, and we had to think tactically and we had two men in there and we come back on the last climb very well and Kasper Asgreen brought me to the front.
“From there the team worked well together, I can’t say how great it is to be on this team. It’s like a dream.”
France’s Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies) and Denmark’s Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X) broke clear after 16 km to form the early break of the day. Their lead topped at 3 minutes and 45 seconds at kilometre 35 and the bunch, led by Lotto Dstny and Alpecin Deceuninck riders, maintained a safe three-minute gap to the front pair.
After the first ascent of the Cote de Millon-la-Chapelle, on which Ourselin collected three points, the gap went down gradually and was only 2:05 when the pack crossed the finish line for the first time.
The tempo steadily increased in the second lap of the day with the sprinting teams leading the chase and the gap was down to the minute with 50 km to go. The two escapees now had to be content with reaching the last climb, 20 km from the finish, to try and fight it out for the KOM jersey.
With 40 km left, Jonas Vingegaard’s Jumbo Visma team jumped to the front of the bunch and the speed gained another gear. Ten kilometres further, Ourselin and Gregaard were reined in after more than 120 km leading the race.
As the tension increased, a crash took place in the peloton, involving half a dozen riders, but the only rider forced to stop was France’s Thibault Guernalec (Arkea-Samsic).
Neilson Powless (EF Education) attacked at the bottom of the small hill with 20 km to go and the peloton split. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) was on the American’s heels with Arnaud Demare and a group of 27 riders broke clear, taking some favourites like Dani Martinez or Simon Yates off-guard.
The bunch regrouped with 16 km to go, but the tireless Powless surged again. Winner of GP La Marseillaise earlier this season, the American held the pack at bay until 7 km from the line.
That was where the only intermediate sprint of the day took place, and Pogačar surged to pick the six seconds up for grabs. France’s Pierre Latour jumped behind him and the two were quickly joined by Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) at the front. Latour and Pogačar were keen to continue the push to a potential stage win, but Vingegaard sat on, meaning Pogačar had little reason to continue.
While the two pre-race favourites finally waited for the pack, Latour went on. But he was run down in the last two kilometres as the peloton was gearing up for the bunch sprint. Merlier’s Soudal-QuickStep team-mate Florian Senechal attacked under flame rouge, disorganising the sprint for their rivals, and paving the way for his leader’s show of strength.
Sam Bennett (BORA-hansgrohe) led the sprint out and had a favourable line through the final bend to the line, but he was run down by Merlier, with Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) third.
Pogačar leads the young rider’s classification and took the first bragging rights in the battle for the general classification as Vingegaard missed on taking any bonus seconds.
Watch all the best cycling events in the world on SBS On Demand, with the Tour de France, Tour de France Femmes and much more.
