Paris-Nice 2024 Stage 1

March 3, 2024 A controlled start to the Race to the Sun saw a three man break go up the road early, consisting of Stefan Bissegger and Jonas Rutsch of EF-Education EasyPost and Mathieu Burgaudeau of Total-Energies. Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease a Bike were controlling the gap from the peloton, keeping things tight at no more than three minutes at any moment. The leaders were caught on a climb but Rutsch and Burgaudeau were tied on points and needed to score to take the mountain's jersey. They stayed at the front and with 200m to the top, Rutsch kicked leaving Burgaudeau a bike length back giving Rutsch the jersey for tomorrow. At 18KM remaining, seconds were up for grabs at a sprint point just up a small hill. Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike got the maximum seconds but Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quickstep followed and kept the pace high over the top, creating a split. Egan Bernal of Ineos made it as well as Victor Campenaerts and one other Lotto-Dstny rider. Only Remco was willing to pull and the peloton was able to come back together. Many of the main sprinters were dropped and the group was reduced even further as the bunch hit the final climb. Bernal tried his hand and Remco went over the top with Primož Roglič of Bora-Hansgrohe and a few others. The remnants of the peloton did catch Remco but there was a lot confusion and no organization. Soudal Quickstep regained control with just Anthony Turgis of Total-Energies off alone in front. The group was only fifty riders and it was difficult to tell which sprinters had survived. As Turgis was caught, Visma got Olav Kooij into position using their shoulders to move a Lidl-Trek rider out of the way. Mads Pedersen was too far forward with the uphill to the line. He was forced to sprint at 250M, holding the lead right before the line. Kooij was able to come off the wheel and take the win by half a wheel.