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New Zealand's Greg Henderson - Source: Reuters -
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New Zealander Greg Henderson took out a "slow motion sprint" in
winning a dramatic first stage of the Paris-Nice cycle race on
Tuesday.
Henderson outsprinted the leading group of 17 riders for victory in
the 201.5km stage, edging out Slovenia's Grega Bole and France's
Jeremy Galland in a winning 4hr 22mins 17sec.
Tour de France champion and race favourite Alberto Contador crashed
three kilometres from the finish in Contres after being dropped
from the front following a harsh effort by the Caisse d'Epargne
team of last year's winner Luis Leon Sanchez.
Henderson's Team Sky website reported that the New Zealander joined
a 15-man breakaway with around nine kilometres to go and positioned
himself intelligently over the closing stages before powering ahead
of Bole at the line.
The race battled through testing conditions, with crosswinds
fracturing the peloton repeatedly and headwinds slowing down the
sprint to the line dramatically.
Henderson told Eurosport: "With around 100 metres to go there was
so much action and I made a move to come across to the front.
"As we came into the final straight the headwinds meant it was like
a slow-motion sprint, just so hard, and I was lucky enough to get
it on the line. "
Henderson, 33, a Commonwealth Games gold medalist in the points
race, also won the 15km scratch race at the 2004 world
championships. He said today's win showed the progress Team Sky had
had made in their debut season
"This result is a credit to the high management of the team who put
us riders together - they selected a group of great guys.
"This season we want to come out and prove to people we're not here
for show. We're here to race hard and to win bike races.
"We've had a great start to the season and to win here at such a
beautiful race is real honour." Prologue winner Lars Boom retained
his overall lead, but Contador, who won Paris-Nice in 2007, is 25
seconds behind in the standings, in eighth place. Henderson
is now sitting sixth, 20 seconds off the pace.
The eight-stage, 1287km race ends on Sunday. Tuesday's second stage
will take the riders from Contres to Limoges on a 201km trek
featuring three third-category climbs.
