Dunbar caught by crash at Paris-Nice but dodges time loss

Luke Lamperti was taking the biggest win of his career as the late drama was unfolding behind him after a hectic final to Paris-Nice stage 1 (Photo: Billy Ceusters)

Luke Lamperti sprinted in to Carrières-sous-Poissy, in north central France, today for the biggest win of his career, and his EF Education-EasyPost's first victory since Ben Healy won stage 6 of the Tour de France way back last July.

The young American, who deserved his victory after a fantastic lead-out, was oblivious to the drama that was unfolding behind him But many of the general classification riders were all too aware of it, including Ireland's Eddie Dunbar (Pinarello Q36.5).

With Dunbar was general classification favourite Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike). Both were among a large group of riders to lose 47 seconds to the winner, after two crashes caused splits in the final kilometre.

First, as the bunch rounded a left hander, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) and a number of others slid out, crashing to the side of the road. But a little further up road, another crash partially blocked the road, creating a stall in the bunch and a big gap.

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And many of those fancied for the overall honours by the time this race finishes in Nice next Sunday were caught behind it. However, as the incident happened in the final kilometre, the time losses do no count towards the general classification.

Dunbar, who was held up by the crashes but does not appear to have been involved in them, finished in 67th, some 47 seconds down. Ryan Mullen, who is part of the Biniam Girmay lead-out train for NSN Cycling Team, was 152nd at 11:20.

Lamperti was expertly dropped off at the front of the bunch by team mate Marijn van den Berg; the Dutch rider only peeling off as the others behind were starting to kick for the line.

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Lamperti took his chance, and though he moved a little to his right and towards the barriers to close the door on Girmay, it was a clean sprint won on merit.

Belgian rider Vito Braet (Lotto Intermarché) took 2nd, after finishing really quickly before running out of road to snatch the victory. Venezuela's Orluis Aular (Movistar Team) placed 3rd, producing a surprise podium after 170.9km of racing, with 2,000m of climbing, including two lively climbs on the finishing circuit.

Dunbar will have to wait until Wednesday's stage 4 - some 195km to Uchon - before he gets to test himself on the climbs. Though the stage is not brutally hard, it finishes on an 8.4km climb, averaging 4.5 per cent.

That should be enough for the general classification riders to impose themselves. And with two stage races already in his legs - AlUla Tour and UAE Tour - hopefully Dunbar can take a result from the coming week.

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