Lamperti kick-starts EF's season with sprint win on Paris-Nice stage 1

Luke Lamperti (EF Education-EasyPost) sprinted to victory on the opening stage of Paris-Nice in Carrières-sous-Poissy, taking his first and his team's first victory of the season.

The 23-year-old American had the prime lead-out from his EF teammates, including Marijn van den Berg, and he managed to deliver an excellent sprint, finishing ahead of Vito Braet (Lotto-Intermarché) in second and Orluis Aular in third. One of the pre-stage favourites, Biniam Girmay (NSN), found himself boxed in and could only manage fifth.

There had been positive signs for Lamperti with a 10th-place finish at Omloop Nieuwsblad and 9th at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne before the start of Paris-Nice, and the American has now expanded on this strong results.

It's a perfect start to his debut at the Race to the Sun, as Lamperti now leads the general classification, and he will wear the yellow jersey on stage 2, which is again expected to be one for the sprinters.

After the flag was dropped in the town of Achères, located 15 miles Northwest of Paris, kicking off the 84th edition of Paris-Nice, six riders formed the opening stage’s breakaway. 

The sextet consisted of Luke Durbridge and Patrick Gamper (Jayco-AlUla), Sébastien Grignard (Picnic PostNL), Mathis Le Berre (TotalEnergies), Casper Pedersen (Soudal Quick-Step), and Max Walker (EF Education-EasyPost).

Uncharacteristically, the sun made its presence felt early on the opening stage, a contrast from the race’s nickname.

Le Berre and Pedersen provided some entertainment as the pair were the only riders in the breakaway fully invested in the battle for the polka dot jersey. In the end, Pedersen’s sprint ability meant that the Dane took enough points to take the lead in the mountain classification at the end of the day.

The riders reached the finish line in Carrières-sous-Poissy for the first time with 34km remaining, and would tackle two local laps. The breakaway’s advantage over the peloton at this point was still a little over a minute and a half, as teams began to swarm in unison towards the front of the bunch.

GC hopeful Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) had to make a bike change with 24km remaining, but the Spanish rider made a swift return. The next misfortune fell the way of a rider with a different objective; Pascal Ackermann (Jayco AlUla), who suffered a mechanical with 18km remaining, putting his chances at being involved in the stage hunt in jeopardy.

Through the finish line for the second time with 16km remaining, the breakaway still held a strong advantage of around a minute.

Onto the final ascent of the Côte de Chanteloup-les-Vignes with 12km remaining, Le Berre launched a stinging attack, which nobody could match as he crested the summit. 

Behind in the peloton, Ewen Costiou (Groupama-FDJ) launched his own move and was followed by Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), and this stretched the peloton out. But the likes of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) and Oscar Onley (Ineos Grenadiers) were all well placed towards the front of the bunch. 

Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) tried a counter-attack, but Visma | Lease a Bike established some order in the bunch, setting the tempo as Le Berre was reunited with his break companions, minus Durbridge, 30 seconds ahead with less than 10km remaining.

The catch of Grignard, who was the last remaining from the breakaway came with just 1.3km remaining, and attention turned to the impending sprint finish. Decathlon had the front, under the flamme rouge, as there was a crash for Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) under the flamme rouge, but the Frenchman was quickly back on his bike.

EF Education-Easypost led the sprint out, and it was Cees Bol who launched first, but Luke Lamperti managed to get in front and hold on for victory.