Demare outsprints Alaphilippe after Brutal opening Paris-Nice Stage

Strong winds, rain and freezing conditions smashed peloton to pieces as GC contenders fought a desperate attempt not lose time

Four riders formed a breakaway early on, Kristijan Koren (Cannondale), Sylain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Romain Hardy (Fortuneo) and Gatis Smukulis (Delko-Marseille) built a gap of over six minutes.

The tough conditions and brutal headwinds caused echelons and splits in the peloton, leaving riders like Alaphilippe, Dan Martin, Sergio Henao and most of the top sprinters in the front group.

GC riders including Contador and Porte found themselves at the wrong side of the split in the second group.

The leading chase group caught the breakaway to form a new lead group and Quick-Step Floors and FDJ did most of the work for both Dan Martin and sprinter Marcel Kittel.

The time gap to the second group had passed the one-minute mark with 50 kms to go.

The lead group's advantage continued to grow as Contador himself came to the fromt to help pull the break back. AG2R La Mondiale's leader Romain Bardet hit the deck with 25 kilometres to go and eventually clawed himself back into the group.

With 15 kilometers to go, the gap had gone down from 1m 25s to the lead group who has already starting shelling riders out as they increased the pace.

The pace was so high Bryan Coquard and Sylvain Chavanel were to be blown out the back with 3kms to go, followed soon by Marcel Kittel and then Andre Greipel with 2 kms to go.

Wit 1.5 kms to go, Julian Alaphilippe attacked on the final climb with only by Arnaud Demare able to follow. 

In the final sprint Arnaud Demare outsprinted Julian Alaphilippe.

Alexander Kristoff won the sprint for third place ahead of Philippe Gilbert and Tony Gallopin.

Despite his crash, Bardet limited the damage and finished along with Richie Porte at 46 seconds from the winner. 

Alberto Contador, was blown out the back of group 2, after doing much of the work to try and chase the lead group down, crossed the line losing 1m 4s.

A brutal day's racing in cold, wet and very windy conditions.

Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) has been disqualified from the race by the commissaires for drafting behind a team car as he chased back following his crash.

2017 Paris-Nice Stage 1 Top 10 Results

1 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ 3:33:43 
2 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors   
3 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:09 
4 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Quick-Step Floors   
5 Romain Hardy (Fra) Fortuneo - Vital Concept   
6 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors   
7 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal   
8 Marco Haller (Aut) Katusha-Alpecin   
9 Sergio Henao (Col) Team Sky   
10 Rudy Molard (Fra) FDJ

VIDEO: 2017 Paris-Nice Stage 1 Highlights

2017 Paris-Nice LIVESTREAM Replay

17:00 CET: VIDEO - Arnaud Demare wins final sprint against Alaphilippe

#ParisNice LIVE: Arnaud Demare wins final sprint against Alaphilippe Follow => https://t.co/LL01jIrDrs pic.twitter.com/7JoyN32k9Q

— GranFondoGuide (@GranFondoGuide) March 5, 2017

16:54 CET: Top 10 Results Stage 1 2017 Paris-Nice

16:50 CET: Arnaud Demare wins final sprint against Allaphilippe

16:49 CET: Allaphilippe has ATTACKED. Demare FOLLOWS!

16:47 CET: Kittel BLOWN!. 1.4 Greipel BLOWN!!! Only Demare LEFT! km to go!!!!!

16:44 CET: Coquard has BLOWN!. 3 km to go!!!!!

16:40 CET: Katusha-Alpecin's Tony Martin has closed the gap to 5o seconds to the lead group. 7 km to go.

16:33 CET: Gap is coming down, 56 seconds.

16:31 CET: Jon Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) blown out the back of the lead group. 15km to go!

16:30 CET: Only 13 riders are left in the Contador/Porte group after the crash involving Bardet and Kruijswijk. 

16:25 CET: Luke Rowe (Sky) drives the reduced leaders who lead by 1:25 with 20 km to go.

16:23 CET: Roman Bardet CRASHED!

16:20 CET: The pace of the front group is taking it's toll. 2 rider's blown out the back!

16:14 CET:  Leading group gap is out to 1:19. 27km to go.

16:11 CET: Jarlinson Pantano (Trek) is working the hardest at the front of the chasing group for Alberto Contador. But the gap remains unchanged at 1:05.

16:10 CET: Orica-Scott, BMC and Trek-Segafredo are making no inroads on the 1 minute gap

16:02 CET: Quick-Step Floor's Dan Martin and Allaphilippe will be the big winners if the lead group stay's away with 40km to go.

15:58 CET: Lead group of 24 riders include Dan Martin. Contador needs to bring this back, otherwise he will loose a lot of GC time along with Porte and others.

15:55 CET: Alberto Contador is now leading the chasing group but the gap with the 27 leaders remains stable at around one minute. There's panic in group 2.

15:52 CET: Romain Hardy leads the front group over the second ascent of the Côte de Senlisse to ensure that he will wear the polka dot jersey tomorrow. 

15:49 CET: Porte and Contador could lose big time if this doesn't come back. 1m 7s

15:44 CET: Trek-Segafredo and Orica-Scott are leading the chase for Porte and Contador in the second group, but they are still 58 seconds down.

15:40 CET: Contador, Porte's group are in trouble, their gap is growing 1m 1s to front group of 24 riders.

15:35 CET: Contador, Porte's group are chasing hard. Chaos in the wind! 

15:31 CET: The four escapees were caught after 82.5 kms. 27 riders now in the lead. Contador group trailing by 25 secs

15:30 CET: 65 km -> <- 1'35"-> (Kittel's group) <-0'25"-> (Contador / Porte' group)

15:27 CET: Quick-Step and FDJ continue to drive the pace in group 1, 1m 30s down on the four leaders, and 30 seconds ahead of the Contador group2.

15:22 CET: Situation: Quick-Step and FDJ are driving group 1 chasing the breakaway. They are 2:30 down on the break and 25 seconds clear of Contador, Porte group 2.

15:16 CET: Confirmed - Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) has been distanced by group 1. This is turning out to be a brutally tough day of racing!

15:14 CET: The strong winds have caused lots of splits and the chase is on for group2 to get back to group1 being lead by FDJ chasing the breakaway

15:10 CET: Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) has been dropped from the group 1.

15:08 CET: Please refresh this page in your Browser, we now have a live video feed starting shortly!

15:02 CET: Chavanel, Smukulis, Hardy and Koren lead the 26 group 1 by three minutes. Group 1 trailing 3:40 behind the break.

In this group are Richie Porte, Alberto Contador, Simon Yates.

Favourites Romain Bardet and Nacer Bouhanni have bridged across from group 3 to group 2 in a furious push forwards.

15:00 CET: Most of the GC favorites are in the second peloton, including Contador. Gap at 50s with 83kms to go.

14:57 CET: Bardet, Contador,  Porte, Zakarin and Yates are all in the second echelon, 40 seconds down on the first echelon, which contains Martin, TGallopin and Henao. Romain Bardet, Nacer Bouhanni and Pierre Rolland have been caught out and are in the third echelon.

14:55 CET: Results of the sprint in Beynes at 55 km

1. Chavanel 3 points, three seconds
2. Koren 2 pts, 2 secs
3. Hardy 1 pt, 1 sec

14:51 CET: Chavanel, Hardy, Koren and Smukulis lead the breakaway by 4m 10s

14:49 CET: Favourites Romain Bardet, Nacer Bouhanni and Pierre Rolland have been caught out and are in the third group. Echelons Everywhere.

14:48 CET: The peloton has hit crosswinds and split into three distinct echelons. There are fifty riders or so in the front group.

14:40 CET: FDJ's Rudy Molard and Mickaël Delage lead the chase and cut breakaway down to 5m 30s

14:35 CET: FDJ leading the peloton with Arnaud Demare's sprint chances in mind. Chavanel, Koren, Romain Hardy and Smukulis have over 6 minutes.

14:28 GMT: a wet and chilly start to the first stage. 4 leaders have over 6 minutes with still around 100kms to race. Expected sprint finish today.

14:19 CET: The sun has come out!

14:17 CET: 115km remaining - Chavanel breakaway not being chased down by the peleton. The gap is now up to 4m 50s

14:16 CET: Alberto Contador was reportedly on antibiotics last week, but he lines up here among the favourites for overall victory. His fellow new arrival John Degenkolb said that Trek-Segafredo's strategy for the race is built around the Spaniard. "Alberto is definitely the main priority," Degenkolb said at the start. "We want to be successful with GC here. He has to be attentive and ride at the front during stages and that will save energy and help my teammates."

14:14 CET: Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) rolled up at the start line on a disc brake-equipped bike and must have known it was going to cause a minor stir. "Oh yes, disc brakes. I think it’s a good choice for this weather condition. I’ve said before that I still believe in the disc brakes and I’m convinced by it," he said. "I don’t want to comment on the debate at the moment as it’s also driven by the journalists in that. Sorry, no personal offence with that, but it’s just a story that’s been blown up in my eyes. I want to keep the emotions out of it. I still believe in it and I also agreed that the UCI had to investigate what happened in Abu Dhabi. Then we’ll see what happens but the trial is going on and I’ll continue using disc brakes."

13:03 GMT: 4 leaders are Chavanel, Koren, Romain Hardy and Smukulis.

12:56 GMT: Breakaway of 4  have lead of of 3 mins. Horrible conditions, very cold and very wet.

12:48 GMT: Stage 1 is on, live video hopefully around 15:00 GMT

11:28 GMT: Cannondale-Drapac get ready for stage 1, weather is a bit damp today. Stage 1 should see a battle for the final sprint.

Stage 1: Sunday March 05 2017 - Bois-d'Arcy to Bois-d'Arcy - 148.5 km Flat

At 148.5 kilometres, the 1st stage in Parijs-Nice runs on a predominantly flat circuit. Start and finish are in Bois d'Arcy, 30 kilometres west of Paris. The penutimate kilometre is marked by an average gradient of 6%, while the last 500 metres are a false flat.

In last two editions of Paris-Nice started with a prologue, resulting in victories for Michal Kwiatkowski (2015) and Michael Matthews (2016). Three years ago it was the last time the Race to the Sun took off with a regular stage, and Nacer Bouhanni sprinted to glory.

Stage 1 in Paris-Nice 2017 takes in a large loop around Bois d’Arcy. The route features the Côte de Senlisse twice. This 1.1 kilometre climb at 5.5% is crested at kilometre 55 and kilometre 132.5. Besides this uphill section the route is predominantly flat, yet the finale has a suprise up its sleeve as the penultimate kilometre is averaging 6%. Then a short drop catapults the riders into the false flat arrival of 500 metres.

The first three riders on the line in Bois d’Arcy take time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds, while two intermediate sprints (after 55 and 132 kilometres) come with 3, 2 and 1 each.

***** Marcel Kittel, Andre Greipel
**** Bryan Coquard, Nacer Bouhanni, Alexander Kristoff
*** Dylan Groenewegen, Arnaud Demare, Daniel Mclay, Michael Matthews, John Degenkolb