Frenchman Arnaud Demare wins opening stage in photo finish

Arnaud Demare (FDJ) won by a millimetre in a final bike throw in a close foinish with Bahrain-Merida's Gorka Izagirre on the opening stage of the race to the sun

It was a fairly flat and wet affair on Stage 1 of Paris-Nice, a big loop out of and back into Paris. Three riders formed the day's breakaway; Périchon, Roelandts and Rolland and they built up a maximum lead of just over three minutes until the peloton accelerated and started to reel them in.

With aorund 38 kms to go, BMC Racing came to the front to help the chase, unfortunatelty Tejay Van Garderen hit the deck alomg with a few other riders, it was enough for him to abandon the race.

The breakaway was caught with 13.5 kms to go, before the final climb of the Cote de Meudon,an 1.9km climb to the finish with an average gradient of six per cent!

With noone wanting to do too much work on the final climb it came down to a fraught final sprint where by Demare and Izagirre were neck and neck, Demare leaning into Izagirre, closely followed by Laporte and Tim Wellens who came from nowhere in the closing metres.

A great for the French with Demare taking the stage and Laporte third.

The second stage sees the riders begin the long ride south as the race crosses the flat landscapes of northern France towards a likely sprint finish in Vierzon after 187 kilometres.

VIDEO: 2018 Paris-Nice Stage 1 Final Kilometres

2018 Paris-Nice Stage 1 Top 10

1 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ 3:07:39 
2 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida   
3 Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits   
4 Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal   
5 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Sunweb   
6 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors   
7 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:02 
8 Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC Racing Team   
9 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott   
10 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida