Paris-Nice got off to an intensive start at the 6.7km prologue in Maurepas, as the time trial specialists competed not only for the stage win but also for the overall GC lead. Michael Kwiatkowski won the stage, while Tinkoff-Saxo, without outright prologue specialists in the squad, had to settle for placements further down the list of results.
 
Tinkoff-Saxo’s climber Robert Kiserlovski finished 83rd and was, in spite of the average result, satisfied with his performance and sensations on the bike.
 
“Actually, I feel okay with my result today. I’m not a time trial specialist and I’ve, more often than not, performed worse than today. I felt good on the bike, which I take as a good sign ahead of the coming stages in the mountains”, says Robert Kiserlovski and elaborates:
 
“Today, was perhaps not the best result overall for the team. However, I feel that the motivation is high and we’re definitely ready to support Majka, once we get into more mountainous terrain”.
 
The 6.7km prologue in Maurepas featured a classic parcours with several sharp turns, which made for an intense opener to this year’s edition of Paris-Nice. After numerous changes, the leaderboard was finally settled, as Michael Kwiatkowski powered his way to the win just edging out Rohan Dennis(BMC), while Tony Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) finished third.
 
Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka crossed the line as 94th on the prologue - 36 seconds behind Kwiatkowski. Leading sports director at the race Sean Yates noted that the team captain could have performed better but was not on home turf on the short, powerful prologue.
 
“It’s not an ideal starting position, but we knew that we would lose time to guys like Kwiatkowski and Dennis. If all the guys had gone ten seconds faster it would have been a good result, but it was not the case today. So now, it’s a matter of looking ahead, protecting Rafal and being ready as soon as we hit his kind of terrain on stage 4”, comments Sean Yates.

Young Danish champion Michael Valgren was the best-placed Tinkoff-Saxo rider in 61stposition. Yates tells that Valgren produced the power but wasn’t technically at his best.
 
“Looking at Michael’s power output he did a fine stage, but he struggled in some of the turns, where he lost time. On a route like this it’s a matter of finding the rhythm straight away, so he obviously has the potential to do much better as he’s a strong rider”, says Yates and adds:
 
“On the contrary, I believe that Robert did well considering his previous time trials. This bodes well for the mountain stages ahead, as he will play an important part in supporting Rafal later on. As I’ve said, we’re here with ambitions, and the guys will do their best to realize our goals”.
 
Tomorrow’s almost pancake flat stage to Contres is expected to become a sprinter’s duel, as the usual wind and rough weather in early springtime Northern France has been replaced with milder conditions.