alexander kristoff of norway sprinted to victory in the first stage of paris nice on monday to claim his fifth win this season as former world champion tom boonen retired with a broken collarbone the katusha rider edged frenchmen nacer bouhanni and bryan coquard in the finale of the 1221 mile stage from saint remy les chevreuse to contres that was marred by boonen's crash the one day classics specialist heavily hit the ground about 106 miles from the finish after colliding with another rider alexander kristoff of norway celebrates winning the first stage of paris nice on monday  kristoff will continue in the race on tuesday with a 107 mile trek to central france  boonen withdrew from the race and his upcoming classics campaign could be in jeopardy michal kwiatkowski, who won sunday's prologue, retained the race leader's yellow jersey the race continues tuesday with a 1069 mile trek from the zooparc de beauval zoological park to saint amand montrond in central france
122 miles bryan coquard nacer bouhanni alexander kristoff norway tom boonen 11 miles
norway's alexander kristoff lays down gauntlet winning stage one  he edged nacer bouhanni and bryan coquard over 122 miles  tom boonen crashed and broke his collarbone 11 miles from the end 