One week after finishing 2nd in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Moreno Hofland again underlined his great potential when he powered clear of John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) on the uphill finishing straight in the second stage of Paris-Nice to take his first WorldTour win. The Dutchman showed impressive power to keep the fast German at bay while Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) finished 3rd to defend his overall lead.

 

With a stage win in the Vuelta a Andalucia and 2nd place in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Moreno Hofland has already indicated that he is in great condition at the moment. Today, however, he took a massive step up in his career when he won the 2nd stage of the WorldTour race Paris-Nice.

 

Hofland emerged as the strongest when a very hectic and nervous stage came down to a sprint on a tough uphill finishing straight. To add to the difficulty, the riders had to tackle two turns inside the final kilometre and this made it a very uncontrollable affair for the sprint trains.

 

Omega Pharma-Quick Step led the peloton into the final turns that ripped the peloton to pieces as gaps started to open up. A crash from a Lampre and a Katusha rider complicated things further as riders also started to drop off due to the slight gradient.

 

Hofland was well-positioned on John Degenkolb's wheel and he made a brave move when he opened his sprint almost immediately after the final corner 300m from the line. The German reacted immediately and slowly got closer to his young rival but was unable to close it down in time.

 

Hofland raised his arms in celebration to take the biggest win of his career while a little further behind, race leader Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) had to admit that this kind of sprint didn't suit him as well as yesterday's as he was no match to the two riders ahead of him.

 

By finishing third, however, Bouhanni scored enough bonus seconds to defend his overall lead and he was even benefited from the fact that Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) had crashed inside the final 10km of the stage. In the intermediate sprints, the Belgian had put himself one second ahead of Bouhanni in the overall standings but as he never got back - despite a hard chase - his GC ambitions came to an end.

 

In the finale, several splits occurred but Geraint Thomas (Sky) stayed attentive and was one of the only GC riders to stay ahead. Hence, the Brit is the only of the pre-race favourites to sit in the top 10, after taking a bonus second yesterday.

 

Bouhanni takes his 2-second lead over Degenkolb into tomorrow's third stage which finishes on the Magny-Cours motor circuit. It should be the final opportunity for the pure sprinters and offer another chance for riders like Degenkolb and Bouhanni.

 

A flat stage with a rolling finale

The 72nd edition of Paris-Nice continued with a long 205km stage from Rambouiller to Saint-Georges-sur-Baulche and it again seemed to be a great opportunity for the sprints. The first part was entirely flat and even though the roads were more rolling at the end, there was only a single category 3 climb on the route. The race ended with an 18.5km finishing circuit and a very technical finish that had an uphill finishing straight.

 

Like yesterday, the stage took off under beautiful sunshine which is in sharp contrast to what is often the case in the first part of Paris-Nice. As most riders expected the race to come down to a bunch sprint, the script looked very much like yesterday's and there was no big fight to get into today's early break.

 

The break is formed

After 2.5km of racing, Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM) and Anthony Delaplace (Bretagne) attacked and they were immediately allowed to builf up a big gap. After 8km, they were already 3.05 ahead and during the next two kilometres, they added another 1.30 to their lead.

 

At the 20km mark, the gap was 10.40 when the FDJ team of race leader Nacer Bouhanni started to control proceedings. However, the advantage continued to grow, reaching a maximum of 11.30 after 31.5km.

 

The chase starts

The gap now started to come down a bit and the break lost a bit of momentum when Saramotins had to chase back from a puncture. When Delaplace beat Saramotins at the first intermediate sprint after 61.5km of racing, they were 9.05 ahead

 

Behind, Gianni Meersman again sprinted ahead to score another bonus second and one point for the points competition, meaning that he was now equal with Bouhanni in the battle for both the yellow and the green jerseys.

 

Omega Pharma-Quick Step do the work

The gap came down to 7.40 where FDJ kept it stable for several kilometres. When it went back up to 8.30, Omega Pharma-Quick Step took over the chase, wanting to set up a sprint for Tom Boonen or Meersman. They brought the gap down to 6.15 where it was kept stable for some time.

 

With 53km to go, that was still the difference between the two groups, meaning that the peloton had to speed up to get back in contention. Omega Pharma-Quick Step, FDJ, and Giant-Shimano all committed riders to the chase, with Stijn Vandenbergh, Cedric Pineau, Benoit Vaugrenard, and Thierry Hupond swapping turns on the front.

 

A nervous peloton

There was a general cross-tailwind for most of the day and this made the peloton rather nervous. All the GC riders were careful to stay near the front and several riders rubbed shoulders to get the best position.

 

With 46km to go, the riders passed the only climb of the day where Saramotins made a small acceleration to take maximum points ahead of a clearly suffering Delaplace. Behind, KOM lead Christophe Laborie moved ahead to pick up the final point on offer as the gap was now 5.15.

 

The gap comes down

The front duo was a strong one and they worked well together, making it difficult for the peloton to close the gap. With 26km to go, Vandenbergh, Hupond, Pineau, and Vaugrenard had only brought it down to 3.35 and the escapees could start to hope that a surprise win could be in store.

 

With 18.5km to go, the riders passed the finishing line which gave the first indications of the toughness of the finishing straight. Saramotins accelerated slightly to take maximum points in the intermediate sprint that was located at the line, but had to slow down to wait for Delaplace who fell off the pace.

 

Meersman scores points

Behind, Omega Pharma-Quick Step put four riders on the front before Tom Boonen led his teammate Meersman out. No one wanted to take up the fight, meaning that Meersman easily took the final bonus second to move ahead of Bouhanni in GC.

 

The gap was still 2.20 and Giant-Shimano immediately out two riders on the front to continue the chase. As the situation was about to get out of control, Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Orica-GreenEDGE also joined the chase while FDJ chose not to do any more work.

 

More teams drive the pace

Niki Terpstra, Simon Gerrans and Dries Devenyns took some huge turns on one of the many hills on the finishing circuit and the peloton now started to splinter as several riders fell off the pace. One of them was Michael Albasini who appeared to be suffering all day.

 

On that climb 12km from the finish, Delaplace fell off the pace and he was back in the fold 2km further up the road. Saramotins was still 1.35 ahead but when Europcar put Thomas Voeckler on the front, things started to change.

 

Voeckler does an excellent job

Voeckler took a massive turn that brought the gap down to 25 seconds as Saramotins was suffering on the many climbs. Meanwhile, disaster struck for several fast riders when a crash near the front brought down many of the sprinters.

 

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE), Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp), Meersman, and Lars Boom (Belkin) all hit the deck and it took some time for Meersman to get going again. He set off in fierce pursuit to get back and got a lot of assistance from his team cars.

 

The teams jostle for position

Up front, Fabian Wegmann was leading the peloton for Garmin to keep Tom-Jelte Slagter safe but a little later, no team wanted to take control as they all wanted to save their lead-out trains. With 4km to go, OPQS and BMC made competing trains on the front and that was enough for them to catch Saramotings 3.3km from the finish.

 

Giant-Shimano hit the front but realized that it was too early and so stepped off the gas. Vincenzo Nibali briefly led the peloton as he wanted to stay safe until OPQS and Giant-Shimano battled for the first positions at the flamme rouge.

 

Meersman is desperate

While Matthew Goss was one of several riders that got dropped on a climb inside the final kilometres and Meersman was still desperately trying to get back, dangling just 30 metres behind the peloton, OPQS won the battle and the Belgian team led the peloton into the final corners after having been briefly overtaken by a Belkin rider. A crash brought down a Lampre and a Katusha rider and created splits in the peloton but up ahead the sprinters were unaffected.

 

Hofland took off from afar and even though Degenkolb did his best, the Dutchman was strong enough to hold on to take the biggest win of his career.