Discover the Stage 2 highlights !
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© Amaury Sport Organisation - www.aso.fr
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SportTranscription
00:00Tim Moliere was in a league of his own yesterday, powering to the first sprint victory of this
00:07Paris-Nice, and the Belgian will be looking to double up in today's second stage.
00:12It's more of a classic sprint with a long straight run to the finish line, tactically
00:17a bit different, but the result could well be the same.
00:24What is the biggest challenge on this kind of finish?
00:27To be in position on the right time, that will be really difficult.
00:33You can be in position but 200 metres later you can be out of position and 200 metres
00:38later you can be again in position, so it's up to us to have the right timing.
00:46Well Mads Pedersen and Lidl Trek didn't get it right yesterday, but they'll give it another
00:50go today, even if it's not the Danes' favourite kind of finish.
00:55It's a bit of a different sprint today, the last five k's is pretty straight forward,
00:59so it's all about timing.
01:02So hopefully we get it right today and we have a fair and a good chance of sprinting.
01:09Moliere's closest challenger yesterday was Arnaud Demar, who last won on Paris-Nice
01:13back in 2018.
01:15But the stage one runner-up says that he and his team will have a tough job beating the
01:19Belgian.
01:21He's been the man to beat since the start of the season and we know he's very strong.
01:26So we need to try to catch him out if possible.
01:29Can we catch him out?
01:30I mean that's the question.
01:31I think he's beatable, we have to try, but we know he's very strong.
01:47There are over 180km to cover on stage two, heading from Montaissan to Belgarde.
01:53Now historically these stages heading south from Paris have been perfect for echelons,
01:58but there simply wasn't enough wind today.
02:00So on paper, this would be a standard sprint stage.
02:04The final 6km are all in one long straight line before the fast men face off.
02:16After the second day running, there were three riders in the breakaway and two of them were
02:20already in there yesterday.
02:22Alexandre Deletreau from Total Energies and Samuel Fernandes of Kaya Rural.
02:27They were joined by Jonas Abrahamsen of Unix Mobility, with Deletreau out to tighten his
02:31grip on the polka dot jersey.
02:33There are two early climbs today, so I want to go up the road and get as many points as
02:39I can.
02:40As a puncher, it's easier to get points on the shorter climbs that suit me.
02:44I'm just playing to my strengths.
02:47Well, just like yesterday, six points for Deletreau.
02:50And just like yesterday, very little freedom for the breakaway.
02:54The peloton keeping them close, with the sprint teams getting a hand from Vismalisa Bike up
02:58at the front.
03:03The advantage was down to 30 seconds as they embarked on the final 60km, and the GC teams
03:10will also have been thinking about the intermediate sprint, with 20km to go where there were more
03:15bonus seconds available.
03:17The riders clipping along at almost 42km an hour as they slowly reeled in the three escapees.
03:24A brief scare here for Guillaume Martin Guillaume as he's known these days, but he was able
03:28to get going again.
03:32Up at the front meanwhile, Deletreau decided to call it a day and he returned to the peloton.
03:37Fernandez soon followed suit, leaving Abrahamsen solo up at the front, the Norwegian moving
03:43around 30 seconds clear of the bunch.
03:46Martin Guillaume soon caught up again with help from his teammate Enzo Pellaini.
03:51But then with 45km to go, a huge crash in the peloton.
03:55Lots of riders going down, the last thing that we want to see.
03:59Malir and Demar were among those held up, but they were soon on their way again, unlike
04:03Demar's lead out man Florian Seneschal, who was forced to abandon.
04:09It took a while for everybody to make their way back to the peloton which had slowed down,
04:13so the lone leader Abrahamsen now had a gap of a minute and 30 seconds.
04:22The pace really increasing as they approach the finish line for the first time at the
04:26intermediate sprint.
04:28Six bonus seconds for Abrahamsen.
04:31And further back it was Mick van Dijk who pounced to take four ahead of Matteo Jorgensen,
04:36the defending champion looking lively once again.
04:40Another crash here forced Luc Derbridge and Gorka Sararain to abandon and some splits
04:44in the bunch.
04:46Big names like Joao Almeida, Matthias Schjelmoser and Ben O'Connor forced a chase back on, but
04:51chase back on they did, the main peloton reforming with all the sprinters in there too.
04:56Now it was all about reeling in Abrahamsen who still had more than 30 seconds in hand.
05:04But despite all of his firepower the Norwegian was unable to hold off a charging peloton
05:08on this never ending final straight.
05:11He was caught with 2.5k to go and then it was over to the sprinters.
05:17Into the final kilometre with everybody jostling for position and a man in a yellow jersey
05:23But not the yellow jersey was the first to make his move.
05:29This is Axel Zengler who's trying to go for glory, inside 300m to go, Zengler in the yellow
05:34jersey is trying to go for the stage victory, right on the wheel here is Arnaud Tamar in
05:38the green, now goes the yellow jersey and it's Tim Mollier who's trying to go for back
05:43to back stage victories, nobody can challenge, nobody can challenge, Tim Mollier makes it
05:48back to back wins and he wins in Belgarde.
05:52Another demonstration today from Tim Mollier to take his 56th career victory, he now has
05:57at least two wins at each of his stage races this year, the Alula Tour, the UAE Tour and
06:02Paris Nice and he's the first man to go back to back at the race to the sun since Taddei
06:07Pogacar in 2023.
06:09Tim to win a stage on Paris Nice is always special, to win it with that jersey on your
06:14shoulders it makes it even more special?
06:17This is one I'm going to remember for sure.
06:21Why? Because it was tough?
06:23No, because I think it's the first time in my life, in my cycle career I've won in the
06:29leader jersey.
06:35Mollier taking it ahead of surprise package Emilien Janier who nabbed his first World
06:39Tour podium in second for Total Energies and a better day for Pedersen in third.
06:45Mollier increases his lead to 14 seconds over Tamar who got boxed in during the sprint,
06:50the Frenchman one of five riders on the same time along with Jorgensen.
06:56Mollier has also tightened his grip on the points classification, the European champ
07:00now 16 clear of Tamar who'll continue to wear green tomorrow.
07:04No change in polka dots either, Deletre is on top with 12 points followed by Fernandez
07:09and Abrahamsen.
07:13On the other hand we do have a new best young rider, Nick van Dijk taking the white jersey
07:17from Magnus Sheffield.
07:23The GC battle kicks off in earnest tomorrow with the hotly anticipated team time trial.
07:28Do join us again for that on Tuesday and thanks for watching.