Place Name: Avenue Rhin Et Danube
Address: 440 Avenue Rhin Et Danube, 06140 Vence, France
Details: February 23, 2025
The second and final stage starts at the base of the Col d’Èze and heads inland to take on many of the climbs that will be well known to those living in and around Nice. The route then makes its way West, across the Var River for a finish in Vence after 132KM.
The racing was on right from the start. A few groups went up the road but the gap was never fully established and all of the moves were eventually brought back. At some point, Harry Sweeny of EF-Education EasyPost and Louis Barré of Intermarché-Wanty broke clear and with 54KM to go, they were leading the race by around 2 minutes to the peloton. XDS-Astana were chasing quite hard but the progress was slow. Decathlon AG2R threw a man in the chase and things felt more in control with 14KM to go when the lead had come down to 45 seconds.
The first action came from Kevin Geniets of Groupama-FDJ who really made the pace hard with just over 6KM to go. The road was starting to ramp up for the next 3KM until a generally flat run to the finish so this was the last chance for a shake out to avoid a bunch sprint. When Geniets pulled off, Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain Victorious attacked. He was covered by race leader Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana, Alex Cepeda of EF-Education EasyPost and Jarno Widar of Lotto. Barré and Sweeny were caught in the process as Buitrago continued to pile on the pressure. No one was willing to work with Buitrago which allowed a large group to come back to the front of the race.
Buitrago made a last ditch effort with 3.5KM to go and only Scaroni could follow the explosive attack. The pair worked well as Decathlon AG2R formed a chase behind but the cohesion broke down with 1KM to go. They were caught by Dorian Godon of Decathlon AG2R as he started his sprint, 250M from the line. With a vicious style, Godon pulled out a gap and held it for a convincing win. Joseph Blackmore of Israel-Premier Tech was second best on the day with Nicola Conci of XDS-Astana taking third.
After all of the bonus seconds were factored in, Scaroni did enough to win the overall by 10 seconds on Buitrago and 12 seconds to Lenny Martinez.
Tags: Tour des Alpes-Maritimes, 2025, February, Stage 2, Tour des Alpes-Maritimes 2025, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Vence, Harry Sweeny, Louis Barré, Kevin Geniets, Santiago Buitrago, Christian Scaroni, Alex Cepeda, Jarno Widar, Dorian Godon, Joseph Blackmore, Nicola Conci, Lenny Martinez