As a strong lead-out man for French champion Nacer Bouhanni, young Frenchman Geoffrey Soupe (FDJ) has mostly been known for his fast finishing speed. With a 5th place on the Paris-Nice prologue yesterday, he proved that his talents are much more versatile.

With a final 18th place finish in the mountainous Tour of Oman earlier this year, sprinter and lead-out man Geoffrey Soupe's performances resulted in a number of raised eyebrows. When he been the best time held by Peter Velits (OmegaPharma-QuickStep) to take the provisional lead in yesterday's Paris-Nice opener, he proved that he has incredible all-round talents as a bike rider.

His strong performance did not come as a surprise for the people surrounding him.

"Julien Pinot has been my trainer for a long time - since two years before I turned pro," Soupe said after the race. "He knows that in this kind of prologue I am powerful. This is why he said before the start that I could win. He believed in me. There were a lot of corners. It was prologue for a sprinter, and it suited me well."

Despite his strong performance, there was some kind of regret in Soupe's voice. He rued a missed opportunity of a spectacular sight in the bunch sprint which is expected to be the conclusion of the first stage.

"I would have loved to win and wear the yellow jersey in the lead-out of the French champion, Nacer Bouhanni!"

The team has, however, not given up hope of a stint in the leader's jersey. With Bouhanni only 10 seconds behind leader Damien Gaudin (Team Europcar), bonus seconds in the opening stages may give him the possibility to take over the lead. The team is also encouraged by good starts for their GC rider Arnold Jeannesson and Alexandre Geniez, but are concerned by a suffering Pierrick Fedrigo.

The race continues today with a 195 km almost completely flat first stage.