The second stage of Paris-Nice, from Contres to Limoges, was 201 kilometers long and had three climbs: the Côte de Saint-Aignan (2 km @ 3%), the Côte de Maison Neuve (1,1 km @ 6,1%) and the Côte de Nieul (2,8 km @ 3,9%). 172 riders came to the start after Fredrik Kessiakoff (Garmin-Transitions)'s abandon yesterday and with two riders who didn't start today: Simone Ponzi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) and Danilo Napolitano (Team Katusha).

The riders again had to face very low temperatures today, but Lars Boom (Rabobank), used to the cold at the cyclo-cross, is still leading the general classification. The breakaway group didn't stay ahead until the finish and only a fall in Limoges changed the casting for the final sprint which was won by William Bonnet (Bbox Bouygues Telecom).

The riders really suffered from the cold as shown for example in the message Simon Gerrans (Team Sky) published on Twitter: I survived another very cold and very windy day on P-N. This is supposed to be 'The race to the Sun', but it's getting colder every day...

A summary of the stage Contres > Limoges

At the 4th kilometer Koen de Kort (Skil-Shimano) is the first to attack and he's followed by Mauro Finetto (Liquigas-Doimo), Jens Mouris and Laurent Mangel (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) to form a leading group.
At the top of the Côte de Saint-Aignan these 4 riders have created a gap with peloton up to 2'36" and they share the points for the King of the Mountains classification: Laurent Mangel takes 4, Koen de Kort 2 and Mauro Finetto 1. Mangel knows that he's virtually wearing the polka dot jersey at that time already.

Their gap goes up to 4'15" at kilometer 60 and at that time the Rabobank riders of Lars Boom decide to get the lead of the peloton to reduce or at least control the gap.

At the intermediate sprint of Leblanc, Jens Mouris takes 3 points while leaving 2 points for Laurent Mangel and 1 point for Mauro Finetto.

When the HTC-Columbia team starts to work together with Rabobank (to assure a bunch sprint for André Greipel) the gap goes down quickly. At the top of the Côte de Maison Neuve the gap with the 4 leading riders is down to 1'15". The 4 points for the KOM are again for Laurent Mangel, 2 points for Koen de Kort and the last point for Jens Mouris.
At the intermediate sprint of Roussac the leading group is still not taken back and they pass the line in the following order: Laurent Mangel (3 points), Jens Mouris (2 points) and Koen de Kort (1 point). At only 21 kilometers from the finish 3 of them are taken back by the peloton while Laurent Mangel stays ahead alone until 17 kilometers from the finish.

In the climb of the Côte de Nieul it's up to Cyril Gautier (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) to attack to take the 4 points for the KOM before Laurent Mangel who takes 2 additional points and Nikolas Maes (Quick Step) who takes the final point. Gautier stays ahead of the peloton for some time, but the peloton led by the Saur-Sojasun team of Stéphane Heulot finally gets back on him at 4 kilometers from the finish line in Limoges.

Everything thus seems ready for a bunch sprint but in the final kilometer there's a massive fall at the head of the peloton and Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) and Jimmy Casper (Saur-Sojasun) are two of its victims. In the peloton, a little bit disorganised by this fall, the young Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) is leading, followed by William Bonnet (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) and Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne).
At 200 meters from the finish Sagan initiates the sprint but William Bonnet gets over him when there's only 50 meters left and the French rider thus takes his first victory since 2008.

The winner's comment

After the finish, William Bonnet told the official site letour.fr that the finish was quite nervous: In the last kilometers, we had to fight for our places: HTC-Columbia tried to place Greipel and the Liquigas riders were working for Chicchi. At the moment of the fall, I had a good spot, I think 15th. I managed to get around the riders who fell and than I took the right wheel, Luis Léon Sanchez' wheel. He attacked at about 400 meters from the line and at the end I managed to get over him. The 100 last meters were hard but I gave everything and it worked out..

He also explained that this was the most beautiful victory of his career and that he hopes there will be others, even bigger.

The photos of the finish in Limoges

You can find my photos of the finish in Limoges in the photo album:
> photos Paris-Nice 2010: finish in Limoges

The classifications of Paris-Nice 2010 after the second stage

Stage result

The top 10 of the Contres > Limoges stage looks as follows:
1/ William Bonnet (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) - 4h22'40"
2/ Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo)
3/ Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne)
4/ Mirco Lorenzetto (Lampre-Farnese)
5/ Juan Jose Haedo (Team Saxo Bank)
6/ Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis)
7/ Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano)
8/ Eduard Vorganov (Team Katusha)
9/ Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team)
10/ Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas-Doimo)

The general classification (yellow jersey)

After this second stage, Lars Boom (Rabobank) is still leading the general classification which now has the following top 10:
1/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 8h55'51"
2/ Jens Voigt (Team Saxo Bank) - +00'05"
3/ Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) - + 00'10"
4/ David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) - +00'13"
5/ Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) - +00'15"
6/ Greg Henderson (Team Sky) - +00'20"
7/ Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) - +00'23"
8/ Levi Leipheimer (Team Radioshack) - +00'25"
9/ Alberto Contador (Astana) - +00'25"
10/ Xavier Tondo (Cervélo TestTeam) - +00'29"

Among the other favourites Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) is 11th at 31 seconds, Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) 14th at 34 seconds and Tony Martin 24th at 43 seconds.

The classification by points (green jersey)

By finishing 3rd in this stage Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) takes over the green jersey from Lars Boom while Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) goes up to the second place:
1/ Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) - 40 points
2/ Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) - 38 points
3/ Jens Voigt (Team Saxo Bank) - 37 points
4/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 36 points
5/ Jérémie Galland (Saur-Sojasun) - 29 points

After the finish Luis Léon Sanchez answered Pascale's questions indicating he felt good. He said: I thus decided to take my chance at the sprint to try to win the stage.
There was an important head wind which didn't make things easier. I finally ended at the third place and could thus not end this day during which my team mates have once again worked hard with a stage victory. I'm happy of the way things go anyway. Thanks to the bonification seconds I keep getting closer to the first place in the general classification. Now it's important to keep concentrated and to continuer doing things in the same way we've been doing them so far.

The King of the Mountains classification (polka dot jersey)

Thanks to the points he took in the leading group, Laurent Mangel takes the polka dot jersey with an important gap to the number two, Lars Boom:
1/ Laurent Mangel (Saur-Sojasun) - 11 points
2/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 4 points
3/ Cyril Gautier (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) - 4 pts
4/ Koen de Kort (Skil-Shimano) - 4 points
5/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) - 2 points

The best young rider classification (white jersey)

Since he's leading the general classification, Lars Boom naturally also still leads this classification. During the Saint-Junien to Aurillac stage tomorrow the white jersey will still be worn by Roman Kreuziger:
1/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 8h55'51"
2/ Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) - +00'15"
3/ Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) - +00'23"
4/ Grega Bole (Lampre-Farnese Vini) - +00'32"
5/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - +00'39"

The other stages of Paris-Nice 2010

For further information about Paris-Nice 2010, you can click on the following links:
> The Paris-Nice 2010 route, profiles, time and route schedule and Google Maps/Google Earth
> The list of participating riders in Paris-Nice 2010 with their numbers
> The photos of the prologue of Paris-Nice 2010 in Montfort-l'Amaury

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice | Paris-Nice 2010

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