The second stage of Paris-Nice 2014 unfolded in almost the same way as yesterday's stage, this time between Rambouillet and Saint-Georges-sur-Baulche, with a breakaway being formed early in the stage, staying ahead for quite some time but finally being taken back, and with the stage being decided in a bunch sprint. In this sprint, Moreno Hofland (Belkin) managed to stay ahead of John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano), and Degenkolb was followed by Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) who keeps the yellow jersey.

The summary of the 2nd stage of Paris-Nice 2014: Rambouillet > Saint-Georges-sur-Baulche

The sun was again quite present on the roads of Paris-Nice today and two riders particularly enjoyed this sun, by getting away from the peloton at kilometer 2,5 already. Those two riders were the Lituanian champion Aleksejs Saramotins of the Swiss IAM Cycling team and, like yesterday, a rider of the Bretagne-Séché Environnement team, Anthony Delaplace. After about thirty kilometers, their gap reaches its maximum value, at 10'40". Even though it goes down a bit afterwards, the peloton doesn't really seem to be worried about this leading duo yet.

When Saramotins gets a flat tire, Delaplace decides to wait for him and they continue their trip at the head of the race afterwards. At the intermediate sprint in Malesherbes (at km 61.5) their gap still is 9'05" and Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) takes one bonus second there, by taking the 3rd place, leading the peloton.

Only when they get closer to the climb of the Côte de la Ferté-Loupière, the only climb of the day, the peloton gets back a bit more on the leading duo and at the foot of this climb the gap is down to 4'50". Christophe Laborie (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) arrives 3rd on top there, thus securing his polka dot jersey for at least one more stage since he took one additional point for the KOM classification.

Led by the FDJ.fr and Giant-Shimano, the peloton speeds up and continues in a long row. At 20 kilometers from the finish, the peloton sees the gap go under 3 minutes for the first time since the start of the breakaway.
At the intermediate sprint at the first crossing of the finish line, the gap is down to only 2'05" and Gianni Meersman again takes one bonus second by taking the 3rd place in this sprint. He thus becomes the virtual leader of the general classification of the race.

When the gap reaches one minute, Saramotins decides to continue to try to stay ahead alone, at 11 kilometers from the finish, in the final circuit. At a bit under 5 kilometers from the finish, his adventure however also comes to an end and it thus becomes clear the stage will end in a bunch sprint.

John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) again tries his chance, but -like yesterday- he finished second, this time behind Moreno Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) who explained after his victory that, at 1.2 km from the finish, he was still too far behind: I didn't think I would be able to come back to the front but thanks to the help of a team mate I could come back and ended up in front. I saw Degenkolb coming back in the corner of my eye but fortunately the line was there!

The Dutch rider, who announced yesterday that he signed a new contract with the Belkin team until 2016, also indicated that the faith the team puts in me gives me rest and that it was thanks to this that he was able to win this stage in a sprint!

The photos of the 2nd stage of Paris-Nice 2014: Rambouillet > Saint-Georges-sur-Baulche

All day long, you've been able to discover the photos of this 2nd stage of Paris-Nice 2014 (and this will again be the case in the next few days!). You can now already find the full selection of photos in the dedicated photo section:

>> The photos of the 2nd stage of Paris-Nice 2014 between Rambouillet and Saint-Georges-sur-Baulche

The classifications of Paris-Nice 2014 after the 2nd stage

Here are the different classifications after this 2nd stage of Paris-Nice 2014:

The stage classification for Rambouillet > Saint-Georges-sur-Baulche

Here's the top 10 of today's stage:

1/ Moreno Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - 4h53'46"
2/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano)
3/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr)
4/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha)
5/ Thor Hushovd (BMC Racing Team)
6/ Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar)
7/ Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne-Séché Environnement)
8/ Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Belisol)
9/ Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEDGE)
10/ José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team)

General classification

After having taken the 3rd place in the two intermediate sprints intermédiaires, Gianni Meersman was thus the virtual leader of the general classification of Paris-Nice 2014. Since he was the victim of a crash, the Belgian rider however lost 18 seconds on the line and he also was fined 40 and 30 seconds for two times staying for a long time behind a car and for a relay in the race with a team mate in the last kilometer, while Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr), who was wearing the yellow jersey after his stage victory yesterday, took 4 bonus seconds by ending at the 3rd place in this stage.

Here's the top 5 of the classement général after this 2nd stage:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - 8h46'43"
2/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - +0'02"
3/ Moreno Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - +0'04"
4/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - +0'13"
5/ Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar) - +0'14"

Points classification

In the points classification, Nacer Bouhanni also keeps the lead and since this is also the case in the young riders classification, the rider of the FDJ team will still has his "tri-colour" jerseys like he said on Twitter yesterday:

Tricolore 😋 pic.twitter.com/OOyzaFOtYF

— Nacer Bouhanni (@BouhanniNacer) March 9, 2014

Here's the current top 5 of this classification:

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - 24 points
2/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - 24 points
3/ Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 16 points
4/ Moreno Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - 15 points
5/ Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar) - 10 points

King of the Mountains classification

Christophe Laborie (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) made sure he would keep the polka dot jersey by taking the 3rd place on top of the only climb of the day:

1/ Christophe Laborie (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) - 9 points
2/ Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM Cycling) - 4 points
3/ Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 2 points
4/ Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) - 2 points
5/ Anthony Delaplace (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) - 2 points

Young riders classification

Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) naturally also keeps the lead in the young riders classification, still followed by John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano):

1/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - 8h46'43"
2/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - +0'02"
3/ Moreno Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - +0'04"
4/ Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar) - +0'14"
5/ Luca Wackermann (Lampre-Merida)
5/ Fabio Felline (Trek Factory Racing)

The 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2014 will take place tomorrow between Toucy and the Circuit de Nevers Magny Cours, over 180 kilometers. If you'd like to know all the details about this stage, you can check out the race route on Google Maps.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice 2014 | Paris-Nice

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