Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) has beaten Mads Pedersen (Lidl Trek) in a very tight finish to win the opening stage of Paris-Nice after a lumpy finale made for a laboured final sprint into Les Mureaux.
While Ireland's Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) seemed to be in the hunt just before the sprint, after getting onto the wheel of Michael Matthews (Team Jayco AlUla), the Carrick-on-Suir man looks to be still searching for his winning kick.
As the last lead-out man, Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), pulled over from the front, and the sprinters began their final kick, Bennett did not move forward with them at the end of the 157.7km stage.
Instead, he looked like he was massively over geared and had, perhaps, fired all of his bullets in trying to stay in position before the sprint.
Bennett drifted back through the front of the bunch, not contesting the fight for victory, and eventually placed 20th, behind some of the general classification men.
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? Un sprint royal pour un premier @MaillotJauneLCL ! ?
⏪ Revivez le dernier kilomètre de l’étape 1. ?? Un royal sprint royal for the first yellow jersey! ?
⏪Relive the last kilometre of stage 1. ?#ParisNice pic.twitter.com/2BRzzwB4DN— Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) March 3, 2024
