Paris - Nice again with the climbs already. Seven categorized climbs with a category 1 thrown in for let's just say FUN. What better a place to launch the first attack of the day? I can't think of many, so did Westra of Vacansoleil which seems like they are trying to say "yes, we made a mistake with Ricco, but we are here to race". You have to admire their courage to continue on with the bad press they got with Ricco. De Gendt seemed to turn that all around, but water cooler talk would pose the question: is this guy for real? Oh the horror.
Westra was chased down and a group of six formed a break that gained a four min break but was quickly chopped to 1min advantage. Then there were three. Westra and Dupont (AG2R) then were left to fend for themselves. FDJ went to the front and set a furious pace that soon splintered into a seven man break that included four of their riders, also in the break was Thomas Voeckler (Europcar). This group only enjoyed a 35sec lead and then they were brought back with 16k to go.
After some shuffling and attacking a break containing heavy-hitters Martin (HTC), Tondo (Movistar), Kiserlovski (Astana), Carrara (Vacansoleil), Sanchez (Euskaltel), Brajkovic and Kloden (RadioShack) took the reins and didn't let up until they crossed the line. Brajkovic led out Kloden who was flanked by a surging Sanchez and managed to beat the Olympic gold medalist by a tire. Kloden took the stage and the leaders jersey, one that he wore almost 11yrs ago when he won the 2000 edition of Paris - Nice.
1 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack 4:59:00
2 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
3 Matteo Carrara (Ita) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
4 Tony Martin (Ger) HTC-Highroad
5 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne
6 Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Pro Team Astana
7 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Team RadioShack
8 Xavier Tondo Volpini (Spa) Movistar Team
9 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:18
10 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar 0:00:19
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