🚴 Paris-Nice Stage 1 - Demare wins in 4-way photo finish to take victory in the opening stage of a wet Paris-Nice!

FDJ's French national road champion, Arnaud Demare, took the spoils in a rain-soaked beginning stage of the 76th edition of the Paris-Nice; beating Bahrain-Merida's Gorka Izagirre and Cofidis' Christophe Laporte to the stage win.

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A relatively flat stage to start this year's Paris-Nice road race, with only a 2km long uphill climb to the finish to give us watchers something to be entertained with. AG2R continued with their attacking mentality and Alexis Vuillemoz looked like he had the stage wrapped up with just a few hundred metres to go, after going alone from right at the bottom of the climb. His momentum was quickly soaked away with the introduction of cobbles, and allowed the peloton to reach him.

Demare started the sprint as soon as Vuillemoz was caught, and it had seemed as he had gone to early as Gorka Izagirre (Ion's sibling) soon passed him. Demare held onto Izagirre's wheel and impressively kicked again and went past Izagirre on the left before crossing the line. Izagirre, Demare, Laporte, and (surprisingly) Tim Wellens all lunged towards the line at the end, and it wasn't until a few moments later that it had been announced Demare had won.

The big talking point of the stage will be a crash with just 2.6km to go, wiping out Ilnur Zakarin (of Katusha-Alpecin) and Jakob Fulgsang (of Astana). With both riders being overall GC contenders, and the 3km rule to go rule not being in-play due to the uphill finish at the end, both lose key time on their rivals.

Tejay van Garderen was forced to retire from the race with 35km to go due to another crash.

Demare will take the yellow leader's jersey into tomorrow's 187.5km-long stage (which should also end in a bunch sprint) with a 4-second advantage over G. Izagirre due to the bonus seconds available at the finish. The Belgian Tim Wellens (of Lotto-Soudal) and France's Julian Alaphilippe (of Quick-Step Floors) managed to ride themselves into a very advantageous position over their GC rivals and with a repeat of this tomorrow, could soon have some key seconds to play with.

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Stage 1 Results:

1. Arnaud Demare (FRA) | Groupama-FDJ | 3:07:39
2. Gorka Izagirre (ESP) | Bahrain-Merida
3. Christopher Laporte (FRA) | Cofidis
4. Tim Wellens (BEL) | Lotto-Soudal
5. Mike Teunissen (NED) | Team Sunweb

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GC Standings after Stage 1:

1. Arnaud Demare (FRA) | Groupama-FDJ | 3:07:29
2. Gorka Izagirre (ESP) | Bahrain-Merida | + 0:00:04
3. Christopher Laporte (FRA) | Cofidis | + 0:00:06
4. Tim Wellens (BEL) | Lotto-Soudal | + 0:00:10
5. Mike Teunissen (NED) | Team Sunweb | + 0:00:10

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