With Borut Bozic and Andriy Grivko both finishing in the top 10, Astana had a strong start to Paris-Nice which kicked off yesterday with a prologue. The team now has its eyes on the bonus seconds and a possible stint in the yellow jersey.

Astana has entered Paris-Nice with the main purpose of securing a high overall finish for captain Jakob Fuglsang. Even if his 83rd place in the prologue was a little disappointing, the team was highly encouraged by strong performances from Borut Bozic and Andriy Grivko who ended up 8th and 10th respectively.

Sport director Dmitriy Fofonov was satisfied with the eagerness shown by both riders when they tackled the extremely technical course.

"Borut was so fast in the prologue, he nearly caught up to the rider in front of him, and they both crossed the finish line at the same time," Fofonov stated after the race. "He almost crashed as well because he went through some of the technical turns very, very aggressively. It was the same for Grivko."

With both riders only 3 and 5 seconds behind leader Damien Gaudin (Team Europcar) respectively, the team looks to exploit the bonus seconds to get into the race lead. Bozic is the team's sprinter, and a good performance in the expected bunch sprint at the end of today's first stage may see him end his day in yellow.

"It's good for us going into tomorrow's first stage because there will be bonus seconds to pick up, and having two riders in the Top-10 gives us some options," Fofonov explained. "The good showings also put the riders in a very good mood at the beginning of the week, and that's important because this race is extremely hard, and there is no time to relax. We are lucky that the weather was good for this time of year in Paris and should be good until Friday at the latest."

The race continues today with 195 almost completely flat kilometers from St-Germain-en-Laye to Nemours.