Paris - Nice, Stage 1 Saint-Germain-en-Laye -> Nemours 195 km, Monday 4th March

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“At 60k to go, two Movistar riders hit each other and crashed."

 

[Arnout]

where did you get that from? he had a cold a few days ago but was clearly fine just by looking at his perform yesterday which must have been one of his best prologues ever.

he crashed heavily, had to get several stitches on his arm, has a lot of road rash and pain all over his body but other then that he is fine.

what now for him? will he stay home till pais vasco which was his next race or will he get sent to catalunya so he can get some racing k's on his legs before the ardennes.

i am mighty ****ed with this one, he lost a golden chance to win PN

Getting a taste of what is life like as a Gesink or Anton fan Sad to see him drop out like this though, his form has been fine all year.

 

[manafana]

yeah rui costa had nasty crash, most big names made it home safe in group two names i noted were tschoop and taaramae, but i wasnt expecting anything from taaramae anyway.

 

[garyhoop1]

Stage 1 Highlights

Here's some videos from Paris - Nice so far.

http://bit.ly/XJaCmp

 

[trevim]

what now for him? will he stay home till pais vasco which was his next race or will he get sent to catalunya so he can get some racing k's on his legs before the ardennes.

i am mighty ****ed with this one, he lost a golden chance to win PN

When the hell will Paris Nice have such a weak lineup again? I'm also very disappointed, let's hope he can get it right for the Ardennes in some other smaller races or Catalunya. Let's hope at least Quintana stays upright.

 

[abbaskip]

Completely wrong positioning by Viviani, and Renshaw...a really bad sprint, he put himself where there was no gap to pass through

I'm not sure it was a bad sprint necessarily. Petacchi darted off to the left, Renshaw followed for a few metres, and then darted down the inside. The gap was then closed. If Renshaw rode through it, and they closed on him there would have been a fall THEN it would have been Petacchi's fault for not holding his line in the sprint...I think he left his line enough as it was.

 

[Samson]

yeah rui costa had nasty crash, most big names made it home safe in group two names i noted were tschoop and taaramae, but i wasnt expecting anything from taaramae anyway.

Taaramäe said in his blog that he wasn't dropped cause of his form. He said he felt pretty good but was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He said that he tried to be in front of the peloton for the most of the time but couldn't in the last 30 km's. There we're lot of punching and fighting for positions and lots of crashes so he was bit scared. Then the group split and he was in wrong one. Maybe him fracturing his elbow last season which ruined 2012 for him has made him careful.