Michal Kwiatkowski continued Etixx-QuickStep’s impressive start to the season when he emerged as the strongest in the Paris-Nice prologue which opened the European WorldTour season. The Pole beat Rohan Dennis (BMC) by just 0.35 seconds on the flat 6.7km course in Maurepas while Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) could only manage third, 7 seconds behind his teammate.

Yesterday Etixx-QuickStep won two races and there seems to be no limit to the amount of success for the Belgian team. Today they continued their amazing start to the season when Michal Kwiatkowski won the Paris-Nice prologue.

Despite a slower start to the season, the Pole has been time trialling really well all year and he has always been known as an incredible prologue rider. Last year he won the Tour de Romandie opener and today he added his first ever race day in Paris-Nice to his growing palmares.

However, it was an extremely close affair on the short 6.7km circuit in Maurepas which was very flat and had virtually no technical challenges. Rohan Dennis had made this stage his big goal in the race and unlike the rest of the favourites, he decided to start early.

Dennis set a time of 7.40 which at the time was a massive 20 seconds better than Tiago Machado (Katusha) in second and faced a long, nervous wait in the hot seat. No one got even close to his time and when former world champion Tony Martin could only managed 2nd, a massive 7 seconds behind, the Australian could start to hope for a win.

However, Kwiatkowski always loomed as a potential threat and when the Pole sped towards the finish line, it was clear that it was going to be close. In the end, he stopped the clock in a time that was just 0.35 seconds faster than Dennis who again had to settle for a second place in a time trial.

There were still many good time triallists among the late starters but none of them got close to the best. The big disappointment was world champion Bradley Wiggins (Sky) who could only manage 12th in one of his only appearances in the rainbow jersey. Another favourite Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) has been set back by illness and had to settle for 9th.

Kwiatkowski clearly won the first GC battle as the best placed overall contenders were Martin in third, Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) in 4th, Dumoulin in 9th and Geraint Thomas (Sky) in 10th while he gained 15 seconds on pre-race favorite Richie Porte (Sky) and 14 seconds on Tejay van Garderen (BMC). Climbers like Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo), Fabio Aru (Astana) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r) all lost more than 30 seconds.

With the win, Kwiatkowski of course takes the first leader’s jersey in the race and he goes into tomorrow’s first stage with the yellow jersey on his shoulders. After an early category 3 climb, the stage is completely flat and as good weather is forecasted, it is likely to be decided in a bunch sprint. John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) and Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) both finished in the top 8 in the prologue and during the first three stages, they have a chance of taking the yellow jersey by virtue of bonus seconds.

A short, flat course

After a one-year absence, the prologue was back in Paris-Nice which kicked off with a short 6.7km test in Maurepas. The course was almost completely flat and had very few technical challenges, meaning that it was suited to the big specialists.

Spring has arrived early in France and so the conditions were perfect when Daniel McLay (Bretagne) rolled down the ramp as the first rider. The Brit stopped the clock in 8.40 to become to become the first leader but just 24 seconds later he was relegated by Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale-Garmin) who set an early mark of 8.04.

Best time for Machado

The Dutchman got some time in the hot seat as riders like Simon Spilak (Katusha), André Greipel (Lotto Soudal), Jos van Emden (LottoNL-Jumbo), Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-QuickStep) and Heinrich Haussler (IAM) all made it into the provisional top 3 without getting closer than 4 seconds to the time of van Baarle. Imanol Erviti (Movistar) was the first to pose a serious threat but his time of 8.06 was only good enough for second.

Van Baarle was finally beaten when sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) got his race off to a great start by stopping the clock in 8.02 but he never got the chance to sit in the hot seat. Less than one minute later, Machado crossed the line in 8.00 to move into the lead.

Dennis takes the lead

However, Dennis now had all the attention as everybody expected him to set an early mark and with a dominant performance, he shaved an impressive 20 seconds off Machado’s time. For a long time, no one was able to get even within 20 seconds of that mark, with Benjamin King (Cannondale-Garmin) the only rider to make it into the top 5 in the next group of riders.

Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) confirmed his good form by taking 7th  but it was Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) who finally posed a small threat to Dennis. With a time of 7.50, he was clearly better than most and slotted into seconds.

Slagter and Fernandez surprise

Ruben Fernandez (Movistar) and Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale-Garmin) both created major surprises when they slotted into third while Riccardo Zoidl (Trek) did well to set the 6th best time. Rein Taaramae (Astana) confirmed his good condition by taking that spot from Zoidl before Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida) delivered the next surprise with the third best time of 7.56.

Sebastian Langeveld (Cannondale-Garmin) set the fourth best time while Dries Devenyns (IAM) narrowly made it into the top 10. At this point, however, all eyes were on Porte who stopped the clock in 7.55 to move into third.

Disappointment for Martin

Moments later, Lars Boom (Astana) made it two Astana riders in the top 3 when he was only fractions of a second slower than Sanchez while Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) confirmed his progress by moving into seventh. Jack Bauer (Cannondale-Garmin) continued a great day for his American team when he set the fifth best time.

Dennis was now waiting nervously as Martin had hit the course but the former world champion was clearly off the pace, losing 7 seconds to his rival. A little later, Degenkolb created a small surprise when he set the fifth best time which was even better than Geraint Thomas (Sky) who could only manage 6th.

Kwiatkowski takes the lead

Philippe Gilbert (BMC) narrowly missed the top 10 while Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne) and Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Garmin) both had very disappointing rides. Bob Jungels (Trek) was one of the favourites but had to settle for 14th.

Kwiatkowski was now on the course and his time proved to be enough to narrowly beat Dennis. His compatriot Majka lost a massive 26 seconds while Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo) set the 9th best time.

Wiggins misses out

Matthews confirmed that he is a great prologue rider when he set the 8th best time moments before Dumoulin had a disappointing ride to finish 9th. The disappointment was even bigger for Wiggins who was only 11th when he crossed the line.

Van Garderen relegated the world champion one sport and as the final starters Aru, Benat Intxausti (Movistar), Arthur Vichot (FDJ), Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) and Jean-Christophe Peraud(Ag2r) were all far off the pace, Kwiatkowski could step onto the podium as the winner.