Although the wind did not join the party on Monday, on stage 2 of Paris-Nice, there was still some nervousness towards Bellegarde. This notably resulted in several crashes. Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet also hit the ground, but he escaped serious damage. The leader of Groupama-FDJ eventually finished in the time of the winner, Tim Merlier. Together with his teammates, he will tackle a very important time trial tomorrow.
The Paris-Nice peloton headed south on Monday towards the Loiret département, and while a bunch sprint seemed inevitable after the 183 kilometers of racing, there was a slight uncertainty about how the day would unfold within the peloton. This doubt, depending on the strength and direction of the wind, was finally dispelled early on, and the peloton initially appeared quite calm behind a three-man breakaway that went straight away. The gap rarely exceeded two minutes, and the trio was almost caught before the last fifty kilometers. Only Jonas Abrahamsen kept on going up front while Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet suffered a small crash within the pack, where the stress really increased. “The end of the race was nervous because there was no racing all day,” explained Benoît Vaugrenard. “It was a typical Paris-Nice stage.” A first big crash occurred forty-five kilometres from the finish, then a second one twenty kilometres further. The peloton always calmed down after the various incidents, which meant everything could come back together.
“We were already focused on tomorrow”, Benoît Vaugrenard
At the head of the race, Abrahamsen stayed away until the last two kilometres, then the bunch brought him back, and the sprint took place. Once again, Tim Merlier claimed victory and the entire Groupama-FDJ team finished in the pack. Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet crossed the line with “only” a few bruises. “Although it’s not very serious, it’s always annoying to crash on the eve of a team time trial,” said Benoît. “It looks like everything is okay, but they say that a crash is never insignificant. Since we don’t have a sprinter here, the day’s goal was to cross the line in the winner’s time and without incident. The mission was partially achieved. We were already focused on tomorrow”. A team time trial of about twenty-eight kilometres is looming between the Magny-Cours circuit and Nevers on Tuesday, with a rule similar to that of the last two editions: the time will be taken from the first rider to cross the finish line. “It’s a very important time trial for us,” concluded Benoît. “We have big goals and we’ve prepared well for it. There’s a lot of motivation and concentration going into tomorrow. A top 5 would already be a great performance.”
