photo credits @ Paris-Nice
Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) claimed the opening prologue of today’s Paris-Nice, after setting the fastest time of 7:39 along today’s 6.1 kilometer course in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
Race Highlights
Jos Van Emden (Lotto Jumbo) would come to set the day’s benchmark of 7:54, until his teammate, Wilco Kelderman, succeeded in eclipsing his time by two seconds.
Not long after, French time trial champion, Jerome Coppel, would set a new fastest of 7:48.
However, the French rider’s time was eventually toppled by former Spanish road champion, Jesus Herrada, who clocked a new best time of 7:45.
From there, Patrick Bevin, fell Herrada’s time by four seconds to take over the lead. But, the Australian rider couldn’t keep race favorite Tom Dumoulin at bay, who bested his time by just one second.
Just as Dumoulin looked poise for victory, along came Matthews, who surged to across the line to snatch the prologue honors from the Dutch rider by a mere second.
Meanwhile, other race favorites such as Ritchie Porte (BMC Racing) and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) had to settle for 11th and 27th positions respectively.
Top 25 Finishsers
AUS 1 MATTHEWS, Michael (ORICA GreenEDGE) 7:39 NED 2 DUMOULIN, Tom (GIANT – ALPECIN) + 1 NZL 3 BEVIN, Patrick (CANNONDALE) + 2 ESP 4 HERRADA LOPEZ, Jesus (MOVISTAR) + 6 ESP 5 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Jon (MOVISTAR) NED 6 WESTRA, Lieuwe (ASTANA) + 7 GBR 7 THOMAS, Geraint (SKY) BEL 8 DEVENYNS, Dries (IAM CYCLING) + 8 FRA 9 CHAVANEL, Sylvain (DIRECT ENERGIE) + 9 FRA 10 COPPEL, Jerome (IAM CYCLING) AUS 11 PORTE, Richie (BMC RACING) + 10 ITA 12 FELLINE, Fabio (TREK – SEGAFREDO) + 13 SWE 13 LUDVIGSSON, Tobias (GIANT – ALPECIN) NED 14 KELDERMAN, Wilco (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) BEL 15 VANMARCKE, Sep (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) + 14 ESP 16 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Gorka (MOVISTAR) POL 17 MAJKA, Rafal (TINKOFF) BEL 18 CAMPENAERTS, Victor (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) AUT 19 BRANDLE, Matthias (IAM CYCLING) + 15 RSA 20 IMPEY, Daryl (ORICA GreenEDGE) NED 21 VAN EMDEN, Jos (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) NED 22 BOOM, Lars (ASTANA) BEL 23 WELLENS, Tim (LOTTO SOUDAL) KAZ 24 LUTSENKO, Alexey (ASTANA) + 16 FRA 25 GALLOPIN, Tony (LOTTO SOUDAL)
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