Paris-Nice – Prologue – Sylvain Chavanel «The two best were a cut above»

Maurepas enjoyed some summer-like weather, so it was the rainbow jersey on the road who succeeded in winning the prologue of the Paris-Nice. Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-Quick Step) managed to beat Rohan Dennis by a few hundredths of a second to become the first yellow jersey of the 73rd edition of the “Race to the Sun”.

The IAM Cycling team also managed to find its patch of blue sky with Sylvain Chavanel finishing in 7th place just 10 seconds behind the winner.

Drawing his first conclusions for this year’s Paris-Nice, Rik Verbrugghe, the manager sportif for the Swiss professional team, believes that Chavanel has put himself into a strong position.

“Sylvain Chavanel did a very good prologue, and he is where he should be at this point,” the Belgian manager stated.  “We came here to do well in the GC with Sylvain.  He’s not necessarily shooting for the overall, but we are definitely looking for a good place in the general classification.  So he is in his proper place at the moment, which must be reassuring for him.  We may have underestimated how the profile of the race was not all that flat.  There was a lot of up and down; it was not an easy prologue at all.  Regardless, what is clear is that Kwiatkowski and Denis were better than the rest.  After that, there is a clump with a few riders within the same time, more or less, as Sylvain, ten seconds back.”

Chavanel is interested in making a realistic assessment of his effort for the day. 

“I am satisfied with my prologue; overall I did my best,” Chavanel confirmed.  “I have no regrets because I did everything as well as I could.  Perhaps, at the foot of the climb, I did not want to go too hard, but that probably helped me to be able to accelerate going over the top.  Overall, I had good feelings, so it was a good day.  The goal was to be as consistent as possible.”

And even if the time trial champion of France is content not to be on the podium for the day, it is important to see that the rider himself is on course with his form.  “I’m not worried,” Chavanel said.  “A prologue often comes down to hundredths of seconds.  By the end, it was clear that the first two were a cut above the rest of us.  Just look at the times and you can see for yourselves.  Behind them, the times are tight enough, but really I have no regrets.  Over short distances like this, we all did the same thing, essentially, so the time differences are very small.”