Paris-Nice in full swing
Bora-Hansgrohe’s Max Schachmann outsprinted Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck – Quick-Step), Tiesj Benoot (Sunweb) and Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-McLaren) in the final stretch of the first stage. His victory took many by surprise. It was well deserved, though. Schachmann joined Teuns with 4km to go and they caught up to Alaphilippe and Benoot, who were in the lead at the time. Alaphilippe did a lot of work in the final kilometre and seemed to have run out of juice. Schachmann then beat Teuns, leaving him in second place, while Benoot took third. The peloton crossed the finish line 15 seconds later.
General classification after stage one
1. Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) – 3:32:09
2. Tiesj Benoot (Sunweb) + 2s
3. Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-McLaren) + 4s
4. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) + 7s
5. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren) + 24s
6. Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ)
7. Cees Bol (Sunweb) + 25s
8. Nils Politt (Israel Start-Up Nation)
9. Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT)
10. Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling)
Barguil disqualified
The French road race champion crashed alongside Romain Bardet with 65km to go. Barguil was obviously shaken, but got back on his bike after a while. He rode slowly behind a team car before getting off his bike again. He probably wanted to abandon the race. However, he remounted once more and eventually finished the stage, 15 minutes down on Max Schachmann. It was a display of sheer will and determination, but the officials weren’t moved. Barguil’s drafting got him disqualified.
