How these two men managed to stay upright we will never know; ground hurling on stage 2 of Paris-Nice.
By Brian Canty
Overnight race leader Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) was declared the winner of Tuesday’s stage 2 of Paris-Nice on a dramatic day that saw the rider who crossed the line first relegated to third.
Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) took the bunch sprint that decided the 214-kilometre stage from Contres to Commentry.
But because he was adjudged to have sprinted dangerously, he was pushed back to 3rd place as the first three were some way ahead of the rest of the others in the sprint.
Along with Trek-Segafredo rider Niccolo Bonifazio, Matthews and Bouhanni finished one second clear of the peloton.
Matthews was extremely fortunate not to hit the deck in what was a high-speed final but credit to him, he kept his balance and his cool in the immediate aftermath – though he did clearly remonstrate with the Frenchman for his deviation.
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As well as the win – his second of the race after taking Sunday’s prologue - Matthews picked up a 10-second bonus which sees his lead in the general classification grow to 14 seconds over Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin).
A further five-second split in the bunch today caused Alberto Contador (TInkoff), Richie Porte (BMC) and Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) to lose valuable time to other contenders like Dumoulin, Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) and Ion Izaguirre (Movistar).
On the longest stage of this year’s race, a four-man break went from the gun.
But with just one third-category lump lining the route, it was always going to be a day for the sprinters.
Nicolas Roche did some huge work for Team Sky in protecting their main GC man Thomas.
And the Irishman opted not to sprint, finishing some 42 seconds down. He’s now 112th overall at 4:52.
The only other Irish rider in the race is Matt Brammeier (Dimension Data) and he was 35 seconds down today and is just over 11 minutes down overall.
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Tomorrow’s stage sees the first real day for general classification riders, as the peloton navigates a 165-kilometre stage from Cusset to the category two finishing climb of Mont Brouilly.
Here is the video of the sprint, what do you think?
Should he have been relegated?
Posted by Sticky Bottle on Tuesday, 8 March 2016
Stage 2: Contres to Commentry (214km)
1 Michael Matthews, ORICA – GreenEDGE, in 5:04:26
2 Niccolo Bonifazio, TREK – SEGAFREDO, @s/t
3 Nacer Bouhanni, COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS, @s/t
4 Alexander Kristoff, TEAM KATUSHA, at @1 sec
5 Arnaud Demare, FDJ, @s/t
6 Ben Swift, TEAM SKY, @s/t
7 André Greipel, LOTTO SOUDAL, @s/t
8 Wouter Wippert, CANNONDALE PRO CYCLING TEAM, @s/t
9 Adrien Petit, DIRECT ENERGIE, @s/t
10 Jonas Vangenechten, IAM CYCLING, @s/t
145 Matt Brammeier, DIMENSION DATA, @35secs
152 Nicolas Roche, TEAM SKY @42 secs
General Classification
1 Michael Matthews, ORICA – GreenEDGE, in 9:41:46
2 Tom Dumoulin, TEAM GIANT – ALPECIN, @14secs
3 Patrick BEevin, CANNONDALE PRO CYCLING TEAM, @19secs
4 Jon Izaguirre Inxausti MOVISTAR TEAM, @s/t
5 Geraint Thomas, TEAM SKY, @s/t
6 Lieuwe Westra, ASTANA PRO TEAM, @24secs
7 Dries Devenys, IAM CYCLING, @25secs
8 Arnaud Demare, FDJ, @25secs
9 Rafal Majka, TINKOFF, @27secs
10 Richie Porte, BMC RACING TEAM, @s/t
112 Nicolas Roche, TEAM SKY @4:52 secs
163 Matt Brammeier, DIMENSION DATA, @11:07secs
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