Sam Bennett was some people's outside bet for victory on the opening stage of Paris-Nice today but the Irishman lost out as the field split to pieces on a wet and windy 154km into Plaisir.
The Deceuninck-QuickStep finished in 93rd, some 4:10 behind a four-man escape group that had gotten clear of the larger front group that had formed earlier in the stage in the crosswinds.
Tiesj Benoot (Team Sunweb) and Julian Alaphilippe
(Deceuninck-QuickStep) looked for a time like their two-man breakaway would
make it all the way to the finish to fight for the stage win and first yellow
jersey of Paris-Nice 2020.
However, after that strong duo had gotten clear of the
front group that had forged clear earlier in the stage in the crosswinds, they
never built a gap that put them clearly out of site.
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And when the chasers closed right up on them towards the
finish, Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) and Dylan Teuns
(Bahrain-McLaren) jumped across to the two leaders.
That made for four up front coming to the finish where
German champion Schachmann proved too strong for the others and claimed the
stage.
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He took the victory from Teuns and Benoot, with the top
three all on the same time. Alaphilippe had clearly emptied the tank as he
trailed in last of the four leaders and lost three seconds to the others in the
sprint.
A 25-man group finished just 15 seconds down on Schachmann,
meaning though the stage was action packed with lots of splits, some 29 riders
are still firmly in contention.
Included in that group just behind the front four was Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) along with Thibaut Pinot (Groupama FDJ) and Nairo Quintana, whose Arkéa Samsic team mate Warren Barguil was disqualified after the stage for drafting back on after a crash.
Tomorrow’s stage 2 and Tuesday’s stage 3 both look like
more conventional sprinters’ stages, where Sam Bennett will look to take at
least one win.
The only other Irish rider in the race, Ryan Mullen
(Trek-Segafredo), finished in 116th some 14:47 down.
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