The first of only two flat stages. Should be Greipel vs. Kittel, round 1.
As predicted, Lotto and Argos control the peloton all day. However despite the effort, the early breakaway is still up front with only 5 km to go.
Their lead is very slim though, which causes Philippe Gilbert to leave Mathieu Ladagnous and Niki Terpstra behind in an attempt to go solo.
The ex-world champion does pull out the gap a little more, but the sprint trains are chasing hard.
A suprisingly strong Lampre-leadout bring the escape to an end with just over one kilometer remaining.
Kittel is positioned right behind Modolo, whereas Greipel is a few wheels back. Further down the road, Kwiatkowski is trying to bring Siskevicius - who failed to find a good wheel earlier - back into contention.
Entering the final kilometer, Modolo and Kittel both launch.
Kittel passes Modolo almost instantly, but Greipel is coming very quickly from behind. He has a lot of ground to make up, though!
Far too much, it turns out. Kittel wins by several metres!
Greipel gets second, knowing he could've done better if his team hadn't disappeared right when the leadout trains started forming. Michael Matthews is 3rd, having followed Greipel up in the final kilometer.
Siskevicius takes 6th place. A massive success in my opinion, given how far behind he was with just a couple of kilometers to the finish!
After many days for the sprinters, it's finally time for the GC contenders to go their first round. The site of the battle is the classic Mont Faron, which returns to Paris-Nice for the first time since Gilberto Simoni's triumph in 2005.
A very interesting stage lies ahead, I believe. Faron's 5.2 km is on the brink of what the pure puncheurs can handle, which should mean that race leader Peter Sagan may find himself in a bit of difficulty. Nevertheless, it is impossible to discount a guy like him!
An interesting trio make up the break of the day: the enigma that is Thomas De Gendt, the underrated Matthew Busche, and our own prodigy, Chevrier.
In the peloton, Sagan appear to be feeling confident as his Cannondale team are doing 100% of the pacemaking.
Around 70 km from the finish, another four riders try to escape the peloton: Tony Gallopin, Mikel Landa, Esteban Chaves and white jersey wearer Sergey Chernetskiy.
Sagan orders his team mates to bring the quartet back, but they fail to do so and instead end up cracking and falling away from the front.
Saxo Bank take over the pacemaking in Cannondale's place, but their easy pace makes some favourites unhappy. Daniel Moreno is the first to react by attacking 20 km from the finish - followed by a stressed Sagan!
Two more high-profile names - Fabian Cancellara and Domenico Pozzovivo - link up with them to form a new little breakaway at the bottom of the two-part Col du Corps-de-Garde.
In no time, all previous escapees are brought back. The gap down to the main field meanwhile continues to increase.
Unwilling to miss a potentially decisive move, Alejandro Valverde bridges across.
Moreno and Pozzovivo push the pace over first summit, causing both Sagan and Cancellara to start struggling at the back!
After learning about Sagan and Cancellara's problems through the radio, Moreno accelerates again and breaks clear together with Valverde and Pozzovivo.
On the descent down towards Toulon, Saxo bring back everyone but the trio. Their lead is also coming down though, due to Samuel Sánchez leading the way for Contador behind.
A few meters is all that remains in their favor at the bottom of Mont Faron, causing a so far invisible Rui Costa to attempt jumping across.
Behind the Lampre-rider, Kangert leads the other favourites.
Zubeldia, Siutsou, Contador and Pinot soon all follow Costa's initiative, while Kangert continue climbing at his own rhythm.
Just as they come across to the leaders, Moreno puts in yet another attack - cracking Pozzovivo.
Meanwhile, Sagan is starting to fall through! The aggressive riding earlier might not have been the best decision for him.
Up front, Moreno and Valverde refuse to work together. As a result, Contador brings Zubeldia, Costa, Pozzovivo and a suddenly appearing Quintana back to them.
Kangert follows a little further back, together with Barguil and Siutsou.
The group doesn't stay intact for long however, as a seemingly indefatigable Moreno attacks yet again - this time without Valverde following!
All the favourites are in fact looking at each other, and Moreno opens a gap!
It is eventually Valverde who takes up the pursuit; bringing only his team mate Quintana and Contador along. Costa also tried to hang on at first, but blows up just before entering the final kilometer.
Amazingly - considering all the efforts he made earlier - Valverde is the strongest in the chasing group and leaves Quintana and Contador behind as he sets off after Moreno with one of his trademark accelerations!
Too late, though - Moreno wins the day!
2nd for Valverde, who claims the race lead. Quintana and Contador are 3rd and 4th, and still in the running for overall victory.
Costa comes home for 5th alone, half a minute down on Moreno.
Another 30 seconds later, Kangert leads home the next group. He is now 6th in the overall, but a top 5 is still within reach.
Sagan is 43rd today, losing over three minutes. Should be enough to discount him from the GC, after all.
Back to the climbs today. After passing the world's easiest category 1-climb ever - the 5% Ovindoli - and 2012 Giro stage finish Rocca di Cambio, the riders will reach the finish in L'Aquila.
Major gaps are highly unlikely, but someone like Purito could definitely use the uphill final kilometer to gain back some time lost to Mollema on the first stage.
Strong breakaway today, with experienced veterans Davide Rebellin, John Gadret and Alessandro Proni; plus one of Italy's most promising talents, Davide Villella.
With Rebellin and Villella the highest placed riders in the GC - 5'50 behind Mollema - Belkin have no interest in chasing particularly hard.
Therefore, the break holds more than five minutes of advantage when they reach Ovindoli - no more than 30 km from the finish.
Only three of them are left to fight for the stage win, however. Proni was dropped a couple of kilometers before the summit.
Nothing changes on the road to Rocca di Cambio, and the descent also passes without any notable events.
That is about to change however - Rebellin attacks with 3 km to go
It looks like a promising move at first, but Gadret is quick to close down the Italian on the climb into L'Aquila.
Just as they make contact; Villella counters!
Rebellin has nothing to respond with due to his attack, leaving only Gadret to challenge...
It's Villella!
Moments later, the peloton reaches the bottom of the final climb - with Kwiatkowski looking to improve his GC position by attacking!
The other favourites were napping and missed the move, leaving Gesink to chase for Mollema. There's already a clear gap, though!
The distance remains roughly the same all the way to the finish. 21 seconds is the official gap between Kwiatkowski and Nibali; moving him up to 2nd in the GC, just 2 seconds off the leader's jersey.
Apart from our little coup, the only change in the GC is that the escapees climb positions as well. Villella is now 12th, 1'17 back on Mollema.
Poor Sagan His Mountain stat got lowered and lost 3 minutes!
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Tbh, I think Sagan would've lost minutes on Mont Faron in real life as well.
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Paris-Nice: Stage 7 March 9th, 2014
Nice, and the race finale, is coming closer and closer, with today's stage ending south - in Cannes. There's plenty of climbing along the way, meaning that Valverde's race lead will likely be under attack.
Surprisingly, most of the stage is ridden quite slowly. Some moderately dangerous riders like Ryder Hesjedal, Samuel Sánchez and Fabian Cancellara attempted to escape on the descent following the category 1 climb, but they are getting reeled in along with the early breakaway as the last hill begins.
Contador now puts Valverde's legs to the test with a first acceleration.
The attack breaks the peloton down to just a small select group, but Contador soon takes his foot off the gas to recover - causing the pace to drop.
Seeing this as a chance to enter the top 5; Kangert sneaks away.
Just before the summit, he catches up with the last remaining escapees. His gap is unfortunately stuck at the same distance as earlier, since Quintana and Costa are unwilling to let him go.
Everything comes to a full stop shortly afterwards, but Kangert is determined to make a jump in the GC today and sets off again.
He ekes out a small gap on the descent, but it is game over down on the flat when the other favourites start attacking left and right.
After several kilometers of stop-start riding, Kangert puts all his last reserves into one final attempt to escape. Valverde himself follows.
No gap at all this time, so it is looking like a relatively big group sprinting for the win as they turn on to the home straight.
Valverde is sitting in a very strong position, whereas Sagan - for instance - is a long way towards the back of the group.
Under the kite, it is in fact Moreno and Rolland who are pushing clear of the rest, rather than Valverde. Kangert has nothing left to compete with.
After toying with the opposition, Moreno takes his second in a row!
2nd for a quick Romain Bardet, while the yellow jersey comes back impressively near the end to claim 3rd. Only 3 seconds separate him and Moreno now, so the final stage is looking very interesting!
Kangert finishes in 16th. Disappointing that everything came back together after the climb, but there's always another day to do some damage tomorrow.
Mollema is still wearing blue, but Kwiatkowski has joined Kreuziger within 10 seconds of the Dutchman after yesterday's perfectly timed attack near the end. With the mountains returning today, will we see him try to strike back? He was the strongest on the Vesuvio, mind you!
Regardless of Mollema's intentions, this should be an exciting day. The two-part final ascent of Monte Rotondo isn't the toughest in the world, but certainly challenging enough to shake up the GC standings.
Similar to the stage in France; not much of interest occured before the start of the final climb. The only piece of drama was Mollema falling off his bike on the descent from the first category 2-climb: Forca Canapine
He escaped from the accident without any injuries and was paced back to the main field by his team mates before the next climb, luckily.
From there, we fast-forward to the first part of the final climb; where - in contrast to the rest of the day - the action starts right away!
The instigator behind it is Rodriguez, who goes for a long-range attack with more than 20 km to the finish. He does admittedly have some time to make up, but still unusual to see him testing from such a long way out!
Talansky is the first to react; feeling that his 5th place in the overall is threatened. Kwiatkowski increases the pace behind those two.
The peloton is massively depleted by the acceleration, but Nibali's Astana team manages to scramble together enough resources to bring Rodriguez and Talansky's little escape to an end on the flat section between the climb's two difficult parts.
Just as they are caught, Gio Visconti looks to try something instead.
He jumps clear for a little while, but gets shut down when Talansky puts in a new attack at the start of the real final climb. Rodriguez follows once again; and this time also Mollema!
Still a little too far for any of them to sustain the effort after sitting down again, so Kwiatkowski can reel them in a few hundred meters further up the road.
The effect of many tired legs is now starting to show as Kwiatkowski's pace is too much for everyone except Rodriguez!
Nibali and Mollema still appear to be feeling pretty good though, as they bridge the gap just moments later.
Looks like this could be the decisive move. Big gap backwards!
Rodriguez tries a couple more attacks in the next few kilometers; knowing that he needs to gain time on all the other three in the overall.
All of them are annulled by Nibali however, and with 3 km to go the Italian seems to have had enough...
Looks like this could it, as Purito pops.
Kwiatkowski has kept something in reserve for the final kilometer though, and now drops Mollema!
The stage win is all Nibali's, however. Brutal attack.
2nd for Kwiatkowski, who has dropped Rodriguez and Mollema. We just need to see how much Nibali has gained...
Almost a full minute after Nibali's finish; Kreuziger comes in alone for 5th. No Vesuvio-legs today. Talansky, Urán and Spilak are next; shortly followed by a bigger group.
The gaps have now been checked by the jury, and it is Kwiatek who pulls on the leader's jersey! Mollema and Nibali are both within 21 seconds, so it's going to be a tough task to defend this to the end!
Thanks, I'm very glad to hear the effort is appreciated!
Kwiatek is looking strong, no doubt. I was very surprised when he managed to break away with Purito, and even more that he survived the subsequent attacks!
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Paris-Nice: Stage 8 March 10th, 2014
After yesterday's warmup coastal stage, it's time for the big brother to decide the outcome of the 2014 Paris-Nice. Iconic roads will be tackled as the riders ascend the iconic mountain trio of Col de la Porte, La Turbie and Col d'Èze. Valverde, Moreno or someone else - who takes the overall?
A real climbing powerhouse for a break today, with Kenny Elissonde, André Cardoso, Stefan Denifl, Cameron Meyer and Lieuwe Westra.
Thomas Vaubourzeix was also part of the group initially, but decided to drop back after he struggled with the pace already on the early 2nd category Côte de Duranus.
Instead, he spends the entire way up and down Col de la Porte pacing the peloton to ensure that there will be bonus seconds available for the favourites.
Every second will count when Kangert tries to break the top 5.
Vaubourzeix hands over the stick to Rossetto at the start of La Turbie, but we are immediately forced to rethink our tactics as Contador tries to surprise Valverde by attacking from 40 km out.
His plan backfires, though. Valverde jumps across right away - with Moreno and Rolland stuck to his back wheel like band-aids - and counters!
He easily breaks Rolland, but Moreno and Contador both respond. Only one kilometer left to the top, and the gap down to a chasing Rossetto really isn't that large.
BMC, OPQS, Trek and Orica-GreenEdge all come to our aid on the descent, causing both the early breakaway and the Spanish trio to lose most of their advantage before the final lap.
El grupo español are shut down right at the bottom of Col d'Èze. One climb to decide everything, then!
Next to make a move is Moreno. Shockingly, no response from Valverde!
Possibly just a tactic from Movistar, as they send up Quintana to chase.
Or is it, really? Quintana drops Valverde and joins Moreno himself!
In the meantime, Kangert has attacked behind and now has the upper hand on Costa in the battle for 5th place!
The Moreno, Valverde and Kangert groups do in fact merge together with 4 km to the top. That's GC's 1st-4th, 6th and 7th (Pinot) together.
The train is leaving for Costa...
No doubt who is looking like the strongest. New attack from Moreno.
Final remaining early breakaway member Westra is brought back in what looks like a potentially decisive move.
The only one who seems to have some reserves left is Quintana, who once again drops Valverde to bridge the gap.
He's clearly on the brink of his capacity too, however!
Over the summit they go, with Kangert testing whether Valverde and Contador have anything left in their legs.
Apparently not. He gaps them and joins the leading trio.
Doesn't look like the race is decided just yet though, since Valverde brings the two first groups together halfway down the descent.
This could come down to bonus seconds!!
Kangert ignores the merger between the two groups completely and focuses on keeping the group going. With Costa over a minute back, it looks like we could get the desired 5th place after all.
He stays in the lead all the way to the kite, where the others open the sprint. Valverde is perfectly positioned to keep the jersey!
But he's tired!!!
Westra shoots up alongside him, and here comes Moreno as well...
It's going to be one of them! Oh dear, is an early breakaway member going to stop Moreno from taking this?
Yes - victory for Westra!
Hang on... look at Valverde! He is passed by both Elissonde and Contador, meaning that Moreno will gain 4 seconds on him today.
That means Moreno wins Paris-Nice with a margin of one second!
Weening leads home the next group, but it is too late for Costa. Kangert moves up to 5th, while Pinot also improves his position to 6th.
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Tirreno-Adriatico: Stage 2
Paris-Nice: Stage 6
amazing riding! 
