It was an extremely nervous first and 201, 5 kilometer long stage of Paris-Nice between Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines og Contres. Two crashes along the way was the direct consequence of the eager behavior in the peloton chasing Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano) and Philippe Gilbert (Lotto) who broke clear with 41 kilometers to go.

The high pace and fierce cross winds during the chase made the peloton split up in to several groups on the final 20 kilometers of the stage and with 16 kilometers to go the breakaway was wheeled back in the bunch.

In a bonecrushing move from Caisse d’Epargne, a front group was formed without favorite Alberto Contador (Astana) who was now forced to the front of the main pack. Team Saxo Bank’s Jens Voigt once again proved to be hard to beat as he was in the front group to the finish line with leader of the race, Lars Boom (Rabobank). Here, Greg Henderson (Team Sky) demonstrated magnificent speed and took the stage.

Team Saxo Bank’s Jens Voigt finished 7th and gained 17 important seconds on favorites Alberto Contador (Astana) and Levi Leipheimer (Radioshack). Lars Boom is still in the lead of the race in front of Team Saxo Bank’s powerful German.