Nacer Bouhanni of FDJ won the opening stage of the 72nd Paris-Nice.
This eight day UCI World Tour race to the sun started without last year's winner Richie Porte of Team Sky, who will ride in the Tierrno Adriatico which starts on Wednesday due to the withdrawal of Chris Froome.
The opening 162.5 km stage which started and finished in Mantes-la-Jolie, West of Paris, saw Christoph Laborie of the Bretagne SE team go off when the flag dropped.
Tejay Van Garderen was soon forced to abandon with an upset stomach before Laborie had built up a lead of 10.30, taking the four points on the category three climb of Cote de Vert which was the only climb of the day.
Laborie also took the first sprint of the race before the crashes started to happen with Nacer Bouhani, one of the favourites for the race, hitting the deck with Vasil Kiryienka of Team Sky, Mattia Cattaneo and Jose Serpa going down in a second crash.
Laborie took the second sprint and the second climb but with fifty kilometres to go, he was finally reeled in.
There was a sprint at the finish line with 33kms left and Omega Pharma Quick Step's Gianni Meersman won that ahead of Greg van Avermaet of BMC and IAM Cycling's Sylvain Chavanel and then Team Sky's Geraint Thomas
Another crash split the field inside the final twenty kilometres, leaving three groups of riders on the road.
Belkin led the front group which was 45 seconds ahead of the second group. They were not to be caught and this set up a sprint which was won by Nacer Bouhani of FDJ in 3.53.10 ahead of Giant Shimano's John Degenkolb, Gianni Meersman, Joaquin Rojas, Tyler Farrar, Bryan Coquard, Luca Wackermann, Fabio Felline, Fabio Sabatini and Francesco Gavazzi of Astana.
Bouhanni leads the General Classification going into the second stage ahead of Gianni Meersman, due to his time bonuses and John Degenkolb third.