Despite his failure to defend his Paris-Nice title this year, Luis Leon Sanchez still reigns supreme over the cycling world as he earned the World Number One ranking via his third place finish in the Paris-Nice event.

Andre Greipel failed to take hold of the number one spot as Sanchez (Team Caisse d’Epargne) climbed atop the latest rankings, which was released by the UCI today. Sanchez currently holds 158 points, courtesy of his podium finishes in the 2010 Tour Down Under and this year’s Paris-Nice race.

As for Greipel (Team HTC-Columbia), his 119 points puts him in the runner-up slot as of now. These points were earned via three stage wins and the overall championship of this year’s Tour Down Under. Greipel also raced in Paris-Nice but couldn’t improve upon his 25th position from stage one.

The current world number three spot goes to Team Astana’s Alberto Contador,…

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The first stage of Paris-Nice 2010 goes to New Zealand cyclist Greg Henderson. Riding under Team Sky, he beat Grega Bole of Slovenia during a sprint finish that gave him first place for this round.

Henderson recalls the race and shares how happy he was for the victorious result for himself and for Team Sky. “This year I picked up Sky’s first victory, but it’s great to win this time after such a nerve-wracking day. We spent our time accelerating, braking, then accelerating again. I was lucky to find myself out in front.”

However, the yellow jersey is still with Lars Boom, Rabobank’s Dutch cyclist, who won yesterday’s prologue. The peloton had Romain Feillu of France and Albert Timmer of Netherlands leading the way but they fell back after the 146 kilometres mark of the stage.

Alberto Contador finished three kilometers behind. He blames it on his injury last fall because he…

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