Paris - Nice

Paris-Nice
Stage 1:  Saint-Arnoult-enpYvelines to Contres, 203.5km/126mi
By Cathy Mehl
It was a chaotic day in Paris-Nice with wind splitting the peloton apart and crashes marring the day.  The Shack’s Levi Leipheimer went down with under 25km to go, but was able to finish with a large group at 17-seconds off the winning time.  Barreling down the finishing straight with only fifteen riders left in contention, Team Sky’s Greg Henderson overtook Grega Bole (Lampre) to snatch the win in an exciting victory for the British team.  Third place went to Jeremy Galland of Saur-Sojasun.  After a strong showing in the prologue on Sunday, Lars Boom (Rabobank) kept his yellow jersey for another day and continues to lead in Paris-Nice.

 
Waregem  - 8th March, 2010 - Gert Steegmans, who crashed yesterday in the prologue of Paris-Nice has been successfully operated on by the team of Dr. Lenaert of the OLV van Lourdes Hospital in Waregem, Belgium. Dr. Sioen, orthopedist, fixed the left collar bone fracture with a solid plate and nine screws. Most likely Gert Steegmans will be able to ride on the rollers within a week. Competition however is excluded for a longer period . If no complications occur, the doctors expect a full recovery after eight weeks.
 
The rider showed several deep road rashes on the left side of his body. These were cleaned and will probably heal over the next few weeks. A hospitalization of two days is expected. Today Gert Steegmans is absolutely unable to give any comments. He will give a press conference - no individual interviews - in the hospital on Tuesday, March 9th, at 12.00 (12 PM).

Paris – 7th March, 2010
Team RadioShack’s Gert Steegmans broke his left collarbone in the prologue of Paris-Nice.  Steegmans was caught in a whirlwind while on his bike.  The wind picked him up off the ground while he was going 75kph/47mph on a downhill section of the course.  In addition to the fracture, Steegmans suffered from a big contusion of the shoulder muscle and has road rash all over his body. 

Paris-Nice
Prologue: Montfort-l'Amaury to Montfort-l'Amaury, 8km/4.9mi
By Cathy Mehl

It was the season opener for Team RadioShack’s Levi Leipheimer and the American rider wasted no time in getting down to business in the Paris-Nice Prologue on a technically challenging course well-suited to the time trial specialist.  One of the last starters, Leipheimer was chasing the early time of Lars Boom (Rabobank) who held the top time of 10:56 and stopped the clock just off the time of the Dutchman, holding second place for a time.  But starting next to last was German Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank) who powered through the couse with a second-best time to move Levi down to third place for a good start in the 8-day “Race to the Sun.”

Chris Horner and Jani Brajkovic also showed good form on the Prologue.  Jani held first for a time and settled for 11th on the day, while Horner landed in 16th to make three riders in the top 20.

The lineup for Paris-Nice is here:
Paris-Nice (Fra), March 7-14, 2010
Riders: Jani Brajkovic, Chris Horner, Levi Leipheimer, Geoffroy Lequatre, Tiago Machado, Yaroslav Popovych, Sébastien Rosseler & Gert Steegmans
Directors: Alain Gallopin & Dirk Demol
Photo: Graham Watson