Paris-Nice: Matthews awarded stage win after Bouhanni bash

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Despite not being the first rider to cross the line, Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) took his second victory in three days at Paris-Nice after Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) was relegated for deviating from his line on the stage 2 sprint.

Bouhanni opened up the sprint at the end of the 213.5km flat stage and, as Mattthews came up on the left, the Frenchman gradually moved over before leaning in and bumping shoulders with the race leader. It was a miracle that the two riders managed to stay upright, and the Australian waved his arm in remonstration as he crossed the line.

Instead of celebrating with his teammates and readying himself for the podium ceremony, Bouhanni faced a nervy wait as the UCI comissaires studied the replays and he shook his head in anger when he received the news. Since it was a clear trio contesting the sprint, Bouhanni was relegated to third, with Niccolo Bonifazio (Trek-Segafredo) bumped up to second.

Matthews picked up 10 bonus seconds for his win, which sees his lead in the general classification grow to 14 seconds over Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin). There was a small split in the bunch at the end of the race, causing Alberto Contador (TInkoff), Richie Porte), and Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) lose five seconds to other GC contenders like Dumoulin, Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) and Ion Izaguirre (Movistar).

The adrenaline-fuelled final seconds and dramatic post-stage intrigue stood in stark contrast to what was otherwise an uneventful day in the saddle. On the longest stage of this year’s race, a four-man break went from the flag but, with just one third-category pimple lining the route from Contres to Commentry, it was always going to be a day for the sprinters.

Etixx-QuickStep did the lion’s share of the work on the front of the bunch to control the gap to the leaders, but as the race entered its crucial phases they were nowhere to be seen, with Marcel Kittel finishing way back in 65th. Along with Bouhanni’s Cofidis team, Katusha were prominent towards the end but Alexander Kristoff could only finish behind the front three, along with stage 1 winner Arnaud Démare (FDJ), Ben Swift (Team Sky) and André Greipel (Lotto Soudal).

Wednesday’s stage 3 takes the riders east towards Mont Brouilly for the first summit finish of the race. There are some steep ramps, which will suit the climbers, but at just 3km in length, Matthews, who likes a punchy finish, may just fancy his chances of clinging onto his yellow jersey.

How it happened

After yesterday’s snowfall, conditions were a little more temperate on the road from Contres to Commentry, which was largely pan-flat save for a late third-category pimple.

There was one non-starter, with IAM Cycling’s Jerome Coppel, who finished 10th in the opening-day prologue, pulling out this morning due to sinusitis. Movistar’s Juanjo Lobato would soon join him in pulling out 40km into the stage.

The break of the day formed almost as soon as the flag dropped and it comprised Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre-Merida), Mathias Brandle (IAM Cycling), Anthony Delaplace (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Evaldas Siskevicius (Delko Marseille Provence). The quartet quickly established a lead over a peloton that was happy to wait until later in the day to pull them back, and after 20km they had over 10 minutes.

The Etixx-QuickStep team of Marcel Kittel, along with Matthews’ Orica-GreenEdge men, sensed a touch of danger at that point and duly started to crop the advantage down to more manageable proportions. Once down to around 3:30, that was how it would stay for the bulk of a long and uneventful day.

As the race approached the 50km to go mark, the pace in the peloton was raised by Etixx, with stage 1 winner Arnaud Démare’s FDJ team chipping in along with Alexander Kristoff’s Katusha.

At the Côte d'Estivareilles, the sole climb of the day, which was so gentle it couldn’t really be considered as such, Delaplace sprinted away to take the points and put himself in the polka-dot King of the Mountains jersey. The gap back to the peloton, however, was shrinking rapidly, and Grmay was the first to give up the ghost and drop back with just under 30km to go.

The riders entered Commentry and with 17 kilometres to go they passed the finish line for the first time, with one local lap on the menu. As the bell rang, the leaders had 40 seconds over the bunch and Siskevicius decided to attack, dragging Brandle with him but leaving Delaplace for dead.

Just over 10km out it was game over for the remaining duo and they shared a handshake before leaving the sprinters’ teams to get on with it. However, no one really took responsibility, most preferring to keep their powder dry for the final few kilometres.

Pierre-Luc Périchon (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) had a bad crash late on and though it’s unclear exactly how it came about, television cameras showed him lying on the roadside next to a similarly stricken spectator.

Entering the final couple of kilometres it was Cofidis who took it up, giving Bouhanni a decent lead-out. The Frenchman hit the front with 200m to go, and had Matthews’ progress not been stunted by the coming-together, the Australian may well have been first to the line.

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