It may be known as the 'Race to the Sun' but two days into Paris-Nice and the red ball in the sky is yet to make an appearance; the riders lashed by rain and crosswinds again today.
At the finish the field had been shattered, with a curious mix of sprinters, rouleurs and climbers at the front sprinting it out for the stage victory.
Sam Bennett and his Deceuninck-QuickStep must pick up the pieces after none of them placed in the top 50 on the stage and the best of them lost 1:25 on stage winner Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT Pro Cycling).
The in-form Italian approached the finish in a six-man group that had taken flight from what was a large front group that had ridden clear of the rest in the crosswinds on the 166.5km stage into Chalette-sur-Loing.
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Nizzolo won from Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe),
Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Nils Politt (Israel Start-Up Nation), Sergio
Higuita (EF Pro Cycling) and Mads Schmidt Würtz (Israel Start-Up Nation); those
top six all finishing on the same time.
Just three seconds later came another five riders,
including Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) and race leader and stage 1 winner Maximilian
Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe).
A further 15 seconds back – and just 18 seconds off the
leading six – a 17-rider group was brought home by Max Walscheid (NTT Pro Cycling).
Sam Bennett was further back; in 86th place at 3:05 and in the same group as compatriot Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo), who was 69th.
Two of the big losers of the day were Nairo Quintana (Arkea Samsic) and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep).
They finished in a group 1:25 back after Quintana had
crashed and Alaphilippe suffered a mechanical; both enduring back luck with
just over 25km remaining.
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The racing had exploded about 5km earlier, when the field
split and Bennett got left behind with some of the other sprinters as a large
group – initially featuring Quintana and Alaphilippe – rode away.
The result means Schachmann retains his yellow jersey and
now leads overall by 15 seconds from today’s stage winner Nizzolo.
Stuyven is now 3rd overall at 21 seconds and Higuita, who did incredibly well today for a small climber, is in 4th place at just 23 seconds.
On paper, tomorrow’s stage 3 looks like one for the sprinters but after the carnage of the past two days anything is possible.
The racing then moves on to the stage 4 TT on Wednesday
followed by the climbers’ stages.
So far Nibali and Higuita have enjoyed very strong rides;
both keeping their chances alive and looking strong.
Alaphilippe, having been 4th on the opening stage when he
went on the attack, is now back in 24th at 1:32.
Meanwhile, Quintana, who has already won two stage races
this year, is now back in 27th at 1:50.
While neither Quintana nor Alaphilippe is completely out of the general classification race, Nibali and Higuita are in the driving seat, while it will be interesting to see how far Schachmann can go.
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