Place Name: Rue Demersay
Address: 6 Rue Demersay, 45270 Bellegarde, France
Details: March 10, 2025
If Stage 1 looked like a nailed on sprint, today is all but a guarantee. There is less than 1,000M of elevation over the 183KM between Montesson and Bellegarde which should give all the sprinters ample time to reflect on how they can get passed Tim Merlier.
It was a damp start with rain earlier in the morning but the riders got started under cloudy skies. Alexandre Delettre of TotalEnergies and Samuel Fernández of Caja Rural Seguros RGA went up the road for a second day in a row and they were joined by Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility. Lidl-Trek and Soudal Quickstep were doing the pace making in the peloton and had the break at just 1 minute with 80KM to go. Just like yesterday, the peloton went into color blocking across the road. They slowly reeled the break to within 15 seconds so Abrahamsen attacked and went solo with 52KM to go. 7KM later, a crash in the bunch took down at least 15 riders with the worst off being Florian Sénéchal of Arkéa-B&B Hotels who had to abandon. As a result of the crash, the peloton slowed a bit and the gap to Abrahamsen went out to 1 minute 30 seconds.
Abrahamsen entered the local circuit around Bellegarde with 25KM to go and took the bell 5KM later, which also served as the Intermediate Sprint, with a gap of 54 seconds. He took 6 bonus seconds and when the peloton came through, Mick Van Dijke of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe grabbed 4 seconds and Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike took 2. A few moments later, a touch of wheels near the back took down a few riders which split a group off. Luke Durbridge of Jayco AlUla and Gorka Sorarrain of Caja Rural Seguros RGA were involved and both had to abandon. Just a kilometer later, another crash caused more gaps. Nerves were really ramping up with more teams pushing to stay near the front and out of trouble.
The race was really on with 5KM to go. Speeds were well over 50KM/HR with teams getting organized then losing themselves in the washing machine. Abrahamsen was caught with 2.5KM to go. Lidl-Trek seemed to be best organized under the flamme rouge but Soudal Quickstep were bringing Tim Merlier to the front. Lidl-Trek ran out of resources 500M from the line and when Alex Kirsch pulled off, the speed came down slightly which allowed a surge to come from the other side of the peloton. Axel Zingle of Visma-Lease a Bike hit out with 300M to go but he just served as a lead out rider because on his wheel was Arnaud Démare of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek, Emilien Jeannière of TotalEnergies, and Merlier. Merlier went from fourth wheel at 200M and with his initial kick, got clean air. He proved, once again, that he is the fastest man in the bunch and took another impressive win. Jeannière was second best on the day and it was a photo between Pedersen and Hugo Page of Intermarché-Wanty for third. Page got it on the bike throw but he would relegated, giving the final podium spot to Pedersen.
Tags: Paris-Nice, 2025, March, Stage 2, Paris-Nice 2025, Montesson, Bellegarde, Alexandre Delettre, Samuel Fernández, Jonas Abrahamsen, Mick Van Dijke, Matteo Jorgenson, Tim Merlier, Alex Kirsch, Axel Zingle, Arnaud Démare, Mads Pedersen, Emilien Jeannière, Hugo Page