Max Kanter (XDS-Astana) surprised the favourites with victory on stage 2 of Paris-Nice, conquering a messy sprint into Montargis for the biggest victory of his career and first at WorldTour level.
He was delivered into the final run for home by a stellar work Mike Teunissen lead-out, and after he hit the front with just a couple of hundred metres left to complete, neither Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) nor Jasper Stuyven (Soudal-QuickStep) could come around him.
The German only had the chance to sprint after a late breakaway try from Daan Hoole (Decathlon-CMA CGM) was brought back in the final kilometre, having attacked 20km from the line during a lull in the pace.
Hoole was chased down mostly by NSN Cycling team and Movistar, but after several narrowings of the road in the finale and a crash in the last kilometre, their assigned sprinters, Biniam Girmay and Orluis Aular, weren't even able to contest the final sprint.
"Mike [Teunissen] did an unbelievable pull into the final roundabout, and then did the perfect lead-out, so I had to finish it off in the last 200 metres," said Kanter after the finish.
"This morning in the bus, I didn't even know if I would finish this stage, as the last couple of days I've really not felt good on the bike, and now I've won the stage.
"Paris-Nice is one of the biggest races in the world and it's really great to win a stage here."
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Despite getting boxed in during the sprint, Luke Lamperti (EF Education-EasyPost) held onto the yellow jersey, but did see his lead in the general classification cut to zero seconds, after Vito Braet (Lotto-Intermarché) nabbed six bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint.
They will start Tuesday's stage on the same time, but the overall lead will likely pass to one of the top GC teams. Stage 3 is a team time trial, where the likes of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) – who gained four seconds at the intermediate sprint today – will look to flex their team strength in Pouilly-sur-Loire.
How it unfolded
The flattest stage of this year's Paris-Nice kicked off from Epône, still just west of France's capital city, with the race's journey south beginning over an 187-kilometre day to Montargis.
Jasha Sütterlin (Jayco-AlUla) was the first attacker off the front, but three riders quickly followed the German: King of the Mountains jersey wearer Casper Pedersen (Soudal-QuickStep) and TotalEnergies duo Mathis Le Berre and Mattéo Vercher to form the day's first breakaway.
The break of the day, with King of the Mountains leader Casper Pedersen at the rear (Image credit: Getty Images)
German rider Sütterlin got dropped after just under 20km of racing had been completed, and Vercher was soon gone too, but Pedersen and Le Berre – who were also in yesterday's breakaway – were able to build and maintain a lead of more than two minutes over the chasing peloton, which was led by Biniam Girmay's NSN Cycling Team.
Pedersen and Le Berre led until the 60km to go mark when they were finally caught, having battled out the three categorised climbs on the route in pursuit of the polka-dot jersey, with the Dane extending his lead by nine points by cresting all three ahead of the Frenchman.
With low wind speeds cancelling out the threat of echelons on what was an exposed route, the first real increase in pace came before the intermediate sprint in Fromont with 48km to go. After a solid lead-out from his Lotto-Intermarché team, Vito Braet claimed top spot and the maximum of six bonus seconds.
Race leader Lamperti tried to cover the move, but could only manage third in the sprint, meaning the American and Braet were now virtually level on GC. The bigger result of note from the intermediate point, though, was that Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) took second and, with it, gained four seconds over all of his GC rivals.
As the pace lulled again, a crash came with the momentary moment of calm, with two sprinters, Cees Bol (Decathlon-CMA CGM) and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), among those who hit the deck. None of the big GC favourites hit the deck, but it was a sign of how quickly things can turn to chaos.
The Paris-Nice stage 2 peloton, led by NSN Pro Cycling (Image credit: Getty Images)
Though things remained mostly calm, Daan Hoole shook the race up heading into the final 21km, attacking solo off the front and sparking life into what had been a fairly pedestrian stage up to this point.
NSN Cycling kept controlling as they had for most of the day, but Hoole moved further away, up to 27 seconds ahead on his own. Another crash rippled at the rear of the peloton, with three Alpecin-Premier Tech riders among those caught out.
With Hoole threatening, Movistar began to help NSN, as did Picnic PostNL, trying to ensure that the Dutchman didn't ruin the chance for a standard sprint finale. This joint effort brought them five seconds close to the lone leader heading into the last 9km.
His gap fluctuated despite the pace ramping up heavily behind, and with 5km left to race, he still had 19 seconds to defend. Tight corners and roundabouts benefited Hoole in front as the now Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe-led bunch had to narrow and go single file.
A grimacing Hoole made it under the flamme rouge and into the final kilometre, but the peloton was now at full speed with Soudal-QuickStep trying to lead out Stuyven. As they came around the Dutchmen, the final sprint started.
However, a quick double bend in the road at high speed meant that many of the sprint hopefuls were left out of position and unable to contest the sprint. Taking advantage of this were XDS Astana, with Teunissen hitting the front and providing a perfect lead-out for Kanter.
Lamperti looked for a lane to sprint, but couldn't find one next to the barriers, and by this point, Kanter had already hit out for glory and was closing in on the line with Pithie the closest to him. The Kiwi didn't have the power to come around the German, though, so he was able to celebrate victory, holding his head in complete shock after crossing the line.
Max Kanter celebrates on the final podium in Montargis (Image credit: Getty Images)
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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