At the first stage of Paris-Nice, veteran Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Merida) was very close to finally getting the victory which has eluded him since his triumph on the last stage of last year's edition of Bayern Rundfahrt in May. He was, however, beaten into second by a strong Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) and was frustrated by the narrow defeat.

Alessandro Petacchi is by far the active rider with most victories during his career, but the last 10 months has been a long, unsuccessful attempt to increase his incredible tally. With many claiming that age has finally caught up with Ale-Jet, his second place today at the first stage in Paris-Nice proved that he still gas what it takes to compete against his younger competitors.

Petacchi had shown incredible strength towards the end of the stage. When OmegaPharma-QuickStep, BMC and Blanco split the peloton with an acceleration in the crosswinds, he was easily spotted as the sole Lampre rider in the front end of the bunch. He took the wise decision to take Leigh Howard's wheel as the Orica-Greenedge team amassed on the front to give the young Australian the perfect lead-out. He won a hard fight with Mark Renshaw (Blanco) to keep his position at the tail end of the green train before he finally anticipated the sprint with 400 meters to go. Only Bouhanni had the power to pass the Italian.

Petacchi rued the missed opportunity, but was happy by his performance throughout the stage.

" Of course I am disappointed at being so close to success," he said after the stage. "I prepared the sprint with great determination and had a vigorous fight to defend my position in the bunch. I opened up my sprint on the finishing straight because I did not want to get boxed in. I think I did a good sprint. Unfortunately Bouhanni had a strong response, and he believed in it."

Petacchi will get another chance to show that his old legs can still challenge for the victory tomorrow when Paris-Nice continues with its second stage. The 200,5 km are almost completely flat, but in the final kilometer the road rises slightly with an average of 3% which may be to the disadvantage of the heaviest sprinters and thus increase the possibilities for the veteran Italian.