Report
Going into the opening stage of Paris-Nice, Jonathan Vaughters’ squad was staring down the barrel of a deeply uncomfortable statistic: they were one of only two men’s WorldTour teams without a single victory in 2026. That’s a lot of pressure to carry into the Race to the Sun. But on Sunday, 23-year-old American Luke Lamperti shattered that winless streak, taking the biggest victory of his career and snagging his first WorldTour yellow jersey in the process.
Let’s be clear about how this happened. Yes, Lamperti had the legs to finish the job in Carrières-sous-Poissy, but this win belongs just as much to Marijn van den Berg.
In a chaotic, surging finale that saw crashes sweeping through the bunch inside the final kilometer, EF actually managed to stay organized. After Kasper Asgreen and Alastair MacKellar navigated the pink train to the front, Van den Berg took over just past the red kite.
What followed wasn’t so much a leadout as it was a prolonged act of athletic violence. Van den Berg hit the front and simply refused to swing off, burying himself for a staggering 350 meters before finally delivering Lamperti to the 200-meter mark.
It was an absurdly long effort, the kind that usually results in the sprinter getting swamped by the wheelsuckers behind. But Van den Berg’s sheer horsepower strung out the field, boxing in pre-race favorites like Biniam Girmay against the barriers and leaving Lamperti with a clean, albeit agonizing, drag race to the line.
It’s rare that a team’s pre-race PR actually aligns with what happens on the road, but EF played this stage perfectly. They sent Max Walker up the road in the early six-man breakaway, forcing the sprinters’ teams to burn matches chasing in the wind. When the break was inevitably neutralized on the final circuit over the Côte de Chanteloup-les-Vignes, the pink jerseys flooded the front exactly when it mattered.
Lamperti barreled down the barriers, holding off a late surge from Vito Braet (Lotto Intermarché) and Orluis Aular (Movistar) to take the win.
“It’s no secret the team has been struggling and had a rough start to the year, but you always know it will come,” Lamperti admitted after the finish, cutting through the usual post-race platitudes.
He’s right. The panic in the EF camp can officially subside for now. Lamperti gets to roll out tomorrow in the yellow jersey of France’s most prestigious spring stage race, and the rest of the peloton has been served notice: the young American isn’t just knocking on the door anymore. He just kicked it down.
Results
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