"At the trigger point of the race, the whole team was at the front, fast enough to catch the breakaway, but with enough control to let me start my sprint without stress."

Those were the words of Astana's Andrea Guardini after winning stage two at the Tour de Picardie. Teammates Maxat Ayazbayev and Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev rode at the front to control the peloton on an uphill section in the final kilometers to keep the possibility of a sprint available for Guardini, who has returned to racing after six weeks recovery from a knee injury at a crash in Belgium.

Guardini followed Arman Kamyshev and Ruslan Tleubayev into the final kilometer and started his sprint in an ideal position to ride first across the finish line. Strong winds did not appear in stage two as expected, and race tactics changed several times during the stage, with road captain Borut Božič effectively guiding his teammates to victory in France.

"The end of race was super fast," he later told Directvelo. "That's why I started early, with 200 meters to go. I passed Bryan [Coquard] 100 meters from the line. I had better legs than yesterday, where the finale was dangerous. 

"This is my sixth win of the season. I am especially happy to win here as I have not raced since my crash at the Scheldeprijs. It was a month without racing caused by a knee injury. This race is my comeback. 

"Obviously, I was not going to do the Giro, especially since there is no room for a sprinter in Astana that's all for Fabio Aru. I still do not know the rest of my program. For example, I do not know yet if I will go to the Tour de France. "