Geraint Thomas was a late replacement for Richie Porte as Team Sky captain in Paris-Nice and the Brit got his race off to a strong start. Avoiding a dangerous split in the finale, he was also aware at the first intermediate sprint where he picked up a single bonus second to move into 5th on GC.

Geraint Thomas kept his wits about him to emerge from a crash-filled opening day at Paris-Nice in fifth place overall. The Welshman was protected by his Team Sky team-mates during the opening circuit around Mantes-la-Jolie and ensured he was on the right side of a significant split in the bunch in the final 20 kilometres.

Sprinting to grab a single bonus second after 63km of racing demonstrated great awareness and ensured Thomas ended the day just nine seconds back on stage winner Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ). The French sprinter rebounded from an early crash to pull on the first official yellow jersey of the season, edging out John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) and Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step) in the sprint.

Luke Rowe delivered Thomas to the front with 4km to go while a number of other Team Sky riders were unable to influence the finale after being caught up behind the late crash amid a nervous peloton which blocked the road.

Big names including Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge), Thor Hushovd (BMC Racing), Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) all dropped one minute and nine seconds. Finishing inside the group also denied Edvald Boasson Hagen the chance to sprint for victory.

After the stage Sports Director Nicolas Portal was happy to see the team move safely through a tricky day in which a number of rivals were caught out.

"To have G in fifth place is a really good result today as it means we have a nice car position tomorrow. Of course it is only one second but you never know. It can all count at the end.

"It was a very tricky day. It was a shame for Kiry [Vasil Kiriyenka] who had a crash. He was able to carry on without any major injuries so he was lucky there. Then there was a big crash at the top of the last climb. We had Christian (Knees), Gabba (Rasch) and Edvald in the second group while up from we had David Lopez, Xabi (Zandio), G and Luke. So we had support for G but he was riding really well today.

"The plan today was not to lose any time. It's also nice for us to still have David up there too with G. It gives us some options maybe and we saw today quite a few rivals drop some seconds."