photo credits @ Paris-Nice
Luke Lamperti (EF Education-EasyPost) dominated the sprint in today’s opening stage of Paris-Nice, with the young American outsprinting Vito Braet (Lotto Intermarché) and Orluis Aular (Movistar) in Carrières-sous-Poissy, while Biniam Girmay (NSN) had to settle for 5th place. Lamperti will wear the yellow and white jersey as the first leader of Paris-Nice en route to Montargis, on Monday.
Race Highlights
A 154-man peloton began the 2026 Paris-Nice under cloudy skies in Achères, but the sun rapidly appeared to accompany the riders in this first stage of the Race to the Sun – 170.9km to Carrières-sous-Poissy.
NSN and Picnic PostNL control the early break
The pace was high, with a handful of attacks and counter-attacks until a group of six riders emerged at km 7 with Casper Pedersen (Soudal-Quick Step), Luke Durbdridge, Patrick Gamper (Jayco AlUla), Max Walker (EF Education-EasyPost), Mathis Le Berre (TotalEnergies), and Sébastien Grignard (Lotto Intermarché).
Biniam Girmay’s NSN Cycling Team and Casper van Uden’s Picnic PostNL drove the bunch to control the gap. However, the escapees’ lead never opened up to more than 1’45’’ at the halfway point. From there, the peloton picked up the pace as many teams were wary of the hilly and technical finale, with 4 cat-3 ascents.
Pedersen chases the polka dot jersey
Casper Pedersen dominated the first ascent of the day, the Côte de Gargenville (63.4km to go), later controlling Mathis Le Berre’s attack on the Côte de Vaux-sur-Seine (46.8km) to take 3 more KOM points.
The group later got back together and pushed their lead back up to 1’40’’ as they entered the 16.6-km final circuit, with the mighty Côte de Chanteloup-les-Vignes (1.1km at 8.3%). Once again, Pedersen went first over the summit to all but secure the polka-dot jersey.
Lamperti takes over
The gap was still up to 1’15’’ as the race entered the final lap, with more teams collaborating at the front of the bunch, quickly bringing the gap down to 45’’ at the bottom of the final ascent up Côte de Chanteloup-les-Vignes. Le Berre later attacked at the summit, but the peloton only trailed by 30’’.
With Visma-Lease a Bike’s Bruno Armirail driving a strong chase, the gap dropped down to 10’’ with 5 km to go, with the attackers eventually getting caught just inside the final 2 km.
EF Education-EasyPost then powered to the front during the final kilometer, with Lamperti powering away to his biggest victory to date, following in the footsteps of fellow Americans Matteo Jorgenson and Magnus Sheffield.
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