After his win in the Drome Classic, Romain Bardet was seen as a potential winner of Paris-Nice but all his hopes of the final yellow jersey were crushed on what should have been an easy opening day. Having been involved in a crash with 20km to go, the unfortunate Frenchman ended up losing more than a minute but he refuses any suggestion that he had been poorly positioned.

Romain Bardet showed great form in the early part of the season and with a course without time trials, he was seen as a dark horse for Paris-Nice. However, he got his race off to the worst possible start when he lost 1.09 on the opening day.

Bardet was involved in a crash with 20km to go and even though he was unhurt, it took some time for him to get going. Most of his teammates waited for him - only fellow GC riders Maxime Bouet and Carlos Betancur and sprinter Samuel Dumoulin stayed in the peloton - but their hard chase was not enough to bring them back to the front.

People have suggested that Bardet is to blame for the time loss as he was badly positioned at the time of the crash but he refuses any such ideas.

“I have to blame it on bad luck," he said. "I was in around 35th position in the peloton and thus I was not in a bad place but it's just the circumstances of the race: you’re in the right-hand side and the crash happens in the right-hand side.

"I ended up in the ditch and I had to wait to change my bike and as we say, the train passed. I was well supported by the whole team and my teammates have done a great job to help me. I’m not injured but it will be an handicap for the rest of the race.

"There are still seven stages and I hope to have the opportunity to put things right. We will try to move forward and there are some great stages where our team is able to do something good.”

“We would have preferred to be a minute ahead overall rather than be a minute behind after this first stage," manager Vincent Lavenu said. "That’s annoying because Romain had high ambitions in this Paris-Nice and he was focused on it. Now, we will see the way the race is developing. What is certain is that we have lost a battle but not the war!”

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