Stage 1 of Paris-Nice got off to a slow start with an estimated 32km/h for the first hour of racing. But after catching the early breakaway with just 1km to go, the intensity soared in the final sprint, which was won by Alexander Kristoff. Tinkoff-Saxo’s Matti Breschel was in the mix, but was boxed in during the final burst for the line. 

Matti Breschel finished in 18th place. After the stage, Matti Breschel commented that he had to settle for less due to heavy traffic on the home straight.

“The stage was actually carried out at a rather slow pace but it meant that a lot of guys wanted to participate in the sprint, since we all had fresh legs. With a few hundred meters to go in the sprint I got stuck behind a big group of riders and I couldn’t get past them. For me it’s a shame, as I was aiming for a higher ranking on the stage today”, says Matti Breschel, who tells that the team remains motivated to seek its chances before reaching the more mountainous stages.

“Getting boxed in is not something you control in a sprint like this, as there’s a bunch of other riders also looking for these small gaps, where it’s possible to pass. So it’s just a matter of trying again tomorrow and then we’ll see what we can do in the remainder of these first flat stages before we reach the mountains”.

Stage 1 from Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse took the riders 196,5km to Contres in the heart of Val de Loire. The day saw a two-man breakaway being formed after 33 kilometers of racing. The sprinter’s teams took their turn at the front and held the break in a tight grip with the time gap soaring around 2-3 minutes for most of the stage. However, the front duo picked up the pace within the last 20 kilometers and held the peloton at bay until 1,5km before the finish, where Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) beat Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) on the line.

When asked about the team strategy, Tinkoff-Saxo’s DS Sean Yates noted that the primary target was to save energy and protect team captain Rafal Majka.

“On a stage like this, it comes down to a bunch sprint 99 percent of the time. So we didn’t see any reason to spend energy in a breakaway that stands little chance against a peloton packed with sprinters on a flat and straightforward stage like today. Our main objectives at Paris-Nice is in the mountains, so we wanted to use as small amount of energy as possible and protect Majka throughout the stage”, comments Sean Yates, who expects to see a repetition of today’s stage, when the riders head out on stage 2 to Saint-Amand-Montrond.