Leipheimer and Contador crash in Paris-Nice; still in top 10

After the Paris-Nice peloton battled gusty winds for more than 100 miles, Team Sky's Greg Henderson won the Stage 1 sprint on Monday by slipping past Lampre's Grega Bole right at the finish.

Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) attacked the field with less than a mile to go in Contres, but couldn't sustain the long sprint.

Prologue winner Lars Boom of Rabobank remained in the yellow jersey as Levi Leipheimer (Team RadioShack) and Alberto Contador (Astana) dropped to 7th and 8th in the overall standings after suffering crashes. They started the day in 3rd and 4th place.

Crashes

Leipheimer went down with about a dozen other cyclists between 10 and 15 miles from the finish; Team RadioShack assembled to escort him back to the peloton but a gap remained to the leaders. Then, a little more from a mile from the finish, Contador and Heinrich Haussler both went down. Contador quickly borrowed a teammate's bike and got back to the group.

Leipheimer and Contador both finished in the second group that crossed the line 17 seconds after the dozen or so riders in the winning group.

Speaking of crashes, Oregon's own Chris Horner also crashed at Paris-Nice on Monday; read his blog at OregonLive.

Gains

Saxo Bank's Jens Voight finished in the first group, thus protecting his 2nd place position overall. Garmin Transition's David Millar and Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) moved into the 3rd and 4th place voids left by Leipheimer and Contador.

Leipheimer and Contador go into Stage 2 at 25 seconds behind the leader.

Stage 2 on Tuesday rolls about 120 miles from Contres to Limoges and features three Category 3 climbs.

Top 10 overall

1. Lars Boom (Netherlands) Rabobank
2. Jens Voigt (Germany) Saxo Bank — 5 seconds behind
3. David Millar (Great Britain) Garmin — 13 seconds
4. Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) — 14 seconds
5. Roman Kreuziger (Czech) Liquigas — 15 seconds
6. Gregory Henderson (New Zealand) Team Sky — 20 seconds
7. Levi Leipheimer (US) RadioShack — 25 seconds
8. Alberto Contador (Spain) Astana — same
9. Peter Sagan (Slovakia) Liquigas — 29 seconds
10. Xavier Tondo (Spain) Cervelo — same

Full Stage 1 Paris-Nice cycling results a CyclingNews.