Paris-Nice 2024 Stage 2

March 4, 2024 An uncommon calm, sunny day greeted the riders as they continue their way south. More breakaway antics between Jonas Rutsch of EF-Education EasyPost and Mathieu Burgaudeau of Total-Energies on day two. The pair battled for the Mountains points early in the stage, this time Burgaudeau was victorious and he will take over the jersey from Rutsch for stage three. All of the action happened early in the stage, once the Mountains point had been taken, the peloton caught the break and it was a slow amble towards the finish. At the intermediate sprint, Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek tried to grab some bonus seconds. Mads Pedersen led him out, Danny van Poppel of Bora-Hansgrohe took the max seconds but Pedersen oddly took second place ahead of Skjelmose which seemed like an error in execution. In the finale, space on the road was at a premium. The speed was fast at 5KM to go but riders were all fighting for their own spot, all across the road. With 4KM to go, the route went over a small bridge and right onto a wide highway with plenty of room to maneuver and situate the lead out. The final KM was busy as no team could manage to hold position. It wasn't until 150M to go that Arvid De Kleijn of Tudor Pro Cycling emerged. As lead out riders swung left, a gap appeared on the right and that is when De Kleijn made his move. Laurence Pithie of Groupama-FDJ was on De Kleijn's wheel but could not make progress to come around. Dylan Groenewegen of Jayco-Alula came with some speed on the left side but ran out of legs but held on to a podium spot.