New Zealand’s Greg Henderson (Team Sky) survived a crash-strewn first stage of Paris-Nice on Monday to take the sprint win ahead of Lampre’s Grega Bole and Saur Sojasun’s Jeremy Galland.

Prologue winner Lars Boom finished with the front group and will retain his leader’s jersey, increasing his gap over second-placed Jens Voigt by winning two bonus seconds at intermediate sprints.

(Stellenbosch, 7 March 2010) Approximately 4,500 riders battled it out in this weekend’s Cape Argus Pick n Pay Mountain Bike Challenge. The 2010 MTB Challenge will certainly be remembered for its unbearably hot conditions, with temperatures reaching up to 42′C on today’s 35km and 55km routes. Triple XTERRA world champ, South African Conrad Stoltz, was first to cross today’s finish line.

Former cyclocross rider Lars Boom won Sunday’s challenging opening-day time trial at the 68th Paris-Nice. His cyclocross skills must have come in very handy on the tough course.

On a hilly course replete with cobblestones, wind and cold weather, the 2008 world cyclocross champion blasted to victory ahead of Jens Voigt and Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) in the 8km prologue in Monfort-l’Amaury.

Theo Bos (Cervélo TestTeam) won his second sprint within a week and Frantisek Rabon (HTC-Columbia) wrapped up the overall in Sunday’s final stage at the five-day Vuelta a Murcia in Spain. Keep reading below for a roundup of stages 3 – 5.

Sani2c has quickly established itself as one of South Africa’s premier mountain bike stage races. Kevin Evans once again crossed the line in first place, making it three wins from three starts, all with different partners, and this year would be no exception as he would be racing with Austrian National Champion Alban Lakata (Topeak Ergon racing) as preparation for the upcoming Cape-Epic

South Africans Robbie Hunter and Daryl Impey are doing us proud at the Vuelta a Murcia. The race is held over five stages around Murcia, Spain and is part of the UCI Europe Tour.

Daryl Impey placed 5th for Team RadioShack as Robbie Hunter won the first stage of Tour of Murcia. Lance Armstrong and the rest of the Radioshack team came in same time safely in the bunch.

Yesterday a group of us hit the UCT jump track. It was an amazing evening with no wind. The South Easter has recently been keeping us away from the track so yesterday was a real treat. Dan, Rika and myself pretty much had the track to ourselves. Check out the photos to see what we got up to. Come join us next time.