2020 Paris-Nice Stage 1 Results & Recap
Stage 1 of the 2020 Paris-Nice is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Schachmann plays it smart to take stage victory
After a testing first stage in the rain and wind, Maximilian Schachmann bested his three breakaway companions in a close sprint into Plaisir to claim stage honors and the yellow jersey. The German national champion outkicked Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-McLaren) and Tiesj Benoot (Sunweb) in the final metres, while Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) finished further back in fourth place.
“Everything went fine,” Schachmann said. “I launched the sprint from the last position and I moved a little bit to the left. Luckily Peter (Sagan) protected me a lot in the finale. It’s my hardest race so far this season. I did not have great legs but in the end, I felt that in spite of the pain, I still had some strength left to make it back on the two leaders in the last climb.
“It’s great to clinch that victory for the Bora team,” Schachmann said. “I’m really happy because I missed victory by very little in the Tour of Algarve and to win ahead of these guys is amazing. It’s new for me to be in the yellow jersey but we have a great team her to defend it.”
In the overall competition, Schachmann is in the lead by two seconds ahead of Benoot. Teuns is third, at four seconds.
On a day slanted for the sprinters on paper, it wasn’t that textbook of a 154km journey. Crosswinds and rain complicated matters, especially after Romain Combaud (Nippo-Delko-Provence) attacked at the gun, taking Jonathan Hivert (Direct Energie) along for the ride off the front.
The peloton quickly let the duo go, however after they drew their advantage out to almost six minutes and Hivert scored the first KOM points on the Cote des Mesnuls, Deceuninck-Quick Step went to the front and took over the pace setting and quickly brought the gap down to four minutes.
Then, just 40km in, Circus-Wanty Gobert took a strong turn and split the peloton, causing chaos for big names like Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Pierre Latour (Ag2R), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) or Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), who were caught sleeping at the back.
Things calmed down and Porte and co were able to catch back on, however the damage to the breakaway’s lead had been done, and now the duo had a gap of just 30 seconds. It was enough for Hivert to scoop up more points at the next KOM point, sealing his lead in that competition.
More chaos ensured with around 50km to go, when a crash took out France’s Romain Bardet and Warren Barguil. They struggled to get back on their bikes, and in the meantime the initial duo was brought back and a group of 16 danger riders formed the new lead group.
They included Nairo Quintana, Connor Swift (Arkea-Samsic), Olivier Le Gac and Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Felix Grosschartner and Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), Julian Alaphilippe, Kasper Asgreen, Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis), Nikias Arndt, Tiesj Benoot, Cees Bol and Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb), Krists Neilands (Israel-Start Up Nation).
At the first intermediate sprint, Alaphilippe broke free, hunting for time bonuses and taking Benoot along with him. In the last five kilometres up the final climb, Teuns and Schachmann bridged across at the perfect time to help add extra firepower to the breakaway, and set them up for a good result. \n
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