Dylan Groenewegen continued his fine start to 2018 as he took the second stage of Paris-Nice, taking a thrilling bunch sprint from Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) and Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) after the uphill finish in Vierzon.
The challenging finale, which rose at 3% for the last 500 meters, provided a tactical challenge for lead-out trains and the punchers attempting to disrupt them. Quick-Step are known for excelling in both roles, so it was no surprise that they had the lead coming into the home straight; What was perhaps less expected was Yves Lampaert and Julian Alaphilippe pushing so hard they broke away from the rest of the peloton, only to be clawed back just as the road was about to rise once again.
There was a small and elite pack of sprinters that headed to the right-hand side of the road, with Ramon Sinkeldam on the front to tow Arnaud Demare into the final sprint for FDJ, whilst Elia Viviani was now the man of choice for Quick-Step.
Sam Bennett had been cleverly concealed for Bora until now and he went, but he started too early and Groenewegen had the speed to round the Irishman, who had gone early but was flagging, and he took Viviani in his wheel. The Italian couldn't pass the Dutchman, and neither could for the charging Andre Greipel, returning to form for Lotto-Soudal. The young and increasingly impressive German Phil Bauhaus (Sunweb) was fourth with yellow jersey Demare coming I fifth, keeping the jersey for another day.
The weather had been the source of much discussion before the day’s stage, with winds forecast through the day, and after a fast start the peloton was faced with a cross-headwind and it was not a surprise that it took a long time to get any sort of breakaway. Another surprise was also the relatively low intensity of the peloton’s effort; the average speed over the first hour was a slow 33kph; that was well below the slowest predicted average speed of 40kph.
We just can't get enough from @GroenewegenD win in @ParisNice! Here are some photos from his victory.
Cofidis were at the front of the bench as they approached the first intermediate sprint, but it was Demare that took the full points at the sprint and the bonus seconds on offer. Julian Alaphilippe crossed the line in second with Christophe Laporte in third, an important moment given that Alaphilippe took back two seconds over the main field ahead of the time trial to come tomorrow.
There was still no break after two hours of racing, and TV directors must have been fretting over the fact that there had been nothing to show, but just before the cameras managed to pick up the proceedings, Manuele Boaro (Bahrain-Mérida), Tiago Machado (Katusha-Alpecin), Olivier Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Anthony Delaplace (Fortuneo-Samsic), and Lars Boom (LottoNL-Jumbo) made a very strong breakaway.
This was too strong for much of the peloton, which meant that four of the six, including Naesen, De Gendt and Boom, had to be brought back initially, leaving just two riders – Manuele Boaro (Bahrain-Mérida) and Tiago Machado (Katusha-Alpecin) – out front. They would soon be working very well in tandem, with the peloton stopping for a comfort break, they soon had a gap of over two minutes.
However, too many teams had an interest in putting their sprinter in the mix and the gap tumbled down ahead of the second intermediate sprint, which saw third go to Alaphilippe, giving him another crucial bonus second once again in a week where the margins are traditionally extremely tight. Machado and Boaro pushed on but were caught with no more than five kilometres to go.
