Etixx - Quick-Step rider Michal Kwiatkowski remains the race leader after a bunch sprint finale of a slow paced 192km Stage 1 of Paris-Nice on Monday. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Anthony Delaplace (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) picked up the pace inside the last 25km of the stage as the race was well behind schedule, but were brought back at 1.5km remaining.

Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) won the stage. Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) was 2nd, and Bryan Coquard (Europcar) was 3rd. Kwiatkowski was the top finisher for the team in 21st place, and Julian Alaphilippe was 24th.

Kwiatkowski also remains the points leader, and leads the best young rider classification. Tony Martin is still 3rd in the GC, 7" down.

Tom Boonen was forced to withdraw from the race after a crash at the back of the peloton.

Etixx - Quick-Step looks next to 172km Stage 2, from Zoo Parc de Beauval to Saint-Amand-Montrond on Tuesday. The stage only has one categorized climb, two sprint sections, and descends before going slightly uphill for the finale.

"It was nice to hold the yellow jersey but it was a long day and really nervous towards the end," he said. "The sprinters are very close in the general classification and they have a couple more stages to try and take the jersey. I wouldn't be unhappy if they took it away from me. Now I have good legs and I'm looking forward to stage 4 and the final climb. I don't know what happened with Tom Boonen. I only heard about his crash after crossing the line. I don't know the details."