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Boonen takes first stage at Paris-Nice

By VeloNews Interactive, with wire services
Published: Mar. 7, 2005
Boonen keeps the rubber side down and takes the win
Boonen keeps the rubber side down and takes the win
Photo: AFP

Tom Boonen (Quick Step) won stage 1 of Paris-Nice on Monday, sprinting to victory ahead of a peloton that had been cracked into thirds by a pair of crashes in the final kilometers.

Chilly weather, with temperatures barely above freezing, greeted the Race to the Sun as the peloton set off on the 186.5km stage, a relatively flat affair from the Parisian suburb of Etampes south to Chabris, with only the very small Category 3 Cote de Graviers at 10km to stretch the legs.


Photo: Graham Watson

American Fred Rodriguez (Davitamon) took the first intermediate sprint at 42km, edging Rabobank's Erik Dekker and Bouygues Telecom's Jérôme Pineau. Shortly afterward, FDJeux's Fabien Sanchez took off with Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Liberty-Seguros), building a lead of more than five minutes with 45km remaining.

But Quick Step, CSC, Crédit Agricole and Fassa Bortolo began pushing the pace to set up their respective sprinters, and the margin began dropping quickly. The escapees hung on long enough to take the first two spots at the second intermediate sprint with 12km to go– Dekker grabbed the third – but were swallowed up by the field shortly thereafter.

Then, with Fassa driving, a crash split the field in two, leaving some of the top contenders about 25 seconds behind a lead group – and then, just as Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom) attacked in the final kilometer, another pileup occurred, leaving Boonen to contend with Luciano Pagliarini (Liquigas-Bianchi) and Jaan Kirsipuu (Crédit Agricole) for the stage win.

The finale rearranged the overall, with Dekker taking the lead, Jens Voight slipping to second and Fassa Bortolo’s Fabian Cancellara third.

Armstrong taking time to readjust
Meanwhile, Discovery team leader Lance Armstrong conceded that he was having difficulty getting fired up in his first race of the season at the Paris-Nice here this week.

The 33-year-old Texan finished Monday's first stage in 44th position, 41 seconds behind his old teammate, Boonen, who achieved his third stage win of the season after the 186.5 km run.

"It's my first race of the season and I'm not very sharp," said Armstrong who struggled in 140th position in Sunday's prologue. "I'm probaby slower simply because I stayed longer than usual in the United States. When I return to Europe I pay a lot more attention to my form because I train regularly, eat better and have nothing to distract me.

"Over there (USA) I’ve a lot of commitments and have problems juggling the rigors of preparation and other non-sporting demands," he explained. "I've hardly followed the beginning of the season whereas normally I'm on the Internet every day following results.

"Now, apart from those of the team, I'm not concerned. Some will see this as a sign of something but in my head everything is okay, even if the bad news is that I'm going to stay just one month in Europe. It will be a month of hard work without any distractions."

Armstrong
Armstrong
Photo: Graham Watson

Armstrong insisted that he would be as fired up as ever when he bids for a seventh Tour de France title this summer.

"The Tour is my favorite race, which I owe everything to, for which I live," he said of his decision to compete again.

"I took into account that we have a new sponsor Discovery Channel who are perfectly aware of the importance of the Tour de France. In no way did they force my hand. And then at the bottom of my heart I wanted to continue my Tour de France adventure. It's above all a decision of the heart.

"In fact I'm going to approach it like the others. The figure, the record, all that is of no importance. It will be like the first, like the second. Winning the greatest race in the world one more time."

Armstrong is now in 70th position overall in the Paris-Nice 1min 08sec behind overall leader Dekker.

Boonen 24, won two stages in the Tour of Qatar in January, led a group of twenty riders that formed after a crash in peloton with less than 10km to go. The pile-up previous race winners Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov and Jörg Jaksche of Germany.

Race notes
Olympic pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain abandoned on Monday to fly back to Manchester, where his pregnant wife was expected to give birth by Caesarean section. Wiggins was 62nd in Sunday's prologue.South African rider Robert Hunter was forced out because of a badly cut right elbow that he suffered when he crashed during the stage. He quickly applied to race in Wednesday's Tirreno-Adriatic race as preparation for the first one day classic of the season the Milan-San Remo on March 19 but the sport's governing body the International Cycling Union (UCI) refused to give him the green light.Fullresults are posted

To see how today's stage developed, click HERE to bring up our live update window. Then return to VeloNews.com for a complete report and full results.

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