Sonny Colbrelli earned Bahrain-Merida its first WorldTour victory, and second of the season, on stage 2 of Paris-Nice as he produced a long sprint at the end of anther exacting day, where crosswinds once again produced drama beyond what the flat profile of the stage suggested.
The Italian, in his first season as a WorldTour rider, launched from range and managed to hold off the visibly sluggish legs of the more decorated sprinters in a main field of around 50 that did include the majority of general classification favourites – but not Richie Porte (BMC Racing).
John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) came through for second, with stage 1 winner Arnaud Demare (FDJ) finishing third, unable to hold his sprint all the way to the line but still ensuring he will wear the race leader's yellow jersey tomorrow. Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) was fourth and Christophe Laporte fifth – sprinting in place of his Cofidis teammate Nacer Bouhanni, who abandoned the race having failed to make the front groups as the winds blew and the rain fell.
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"It's the greatest victory of my career. It's incredible. I managed a perfect sprint and to beat riders like Degenkolb or even Kittel just shows that," said Colbrelli of his win. "Of course I have Milan- San Remo in mind. Everyone knows that Paris-Nice is the perfect preparation for that race. But it’s not over yet, I still want to manage things this week."
The efforts of the day were felt by those who did make it all the way, too, as Andre Greipel (Lotto-Fixall) and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) could only slot into the top 10, and Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) finished 20th.
From a general classification perspective, Porte was the big loser. The Australian, a two-time winner of the Race to the Sun, had a torrid time in the crosswinds and was left at the back of the race soon after the 40km mark. Some 150km later, he eventually crossed the finish line nearly 15 minutes down on the main field, his hopes of winning the overall for a third time dead and buried.
Only a few GC riders made the front group at that decisive split inside the first hour – Sergio Henao (Team Sky), Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step), and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) – but behind them Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) and others managed to make it to a main group of around 60 and set about chasing. They duly regained contact with the head of the race with around 60km remaining, and the stage played out in rather more contained fashion thereafter.
Soon those caught out behind settled into larger groups to come home licking their wounds. Porte's group came home 14:16 down, while another group of around 30, including the Cannondale-Drapac duo of Joe Dombrowski and Pierre Rolland – both of whom had lost nearly 20 minutes on the opening day – rolled home 21 minutes down.
Demare leads the race overall by six seconds from Alaphilippe, with Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step), who rolled the dice with a solo attack in the last 20km, in third. Of the overall favourites, Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) sits 19 seconds off the lead in fifth, while Dan Martin (Quick-Step) and Henao are a further four seconds back. Zakarin is just over a minute down, while Contador, Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida), and Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) are all at 1:18.
Tomorrow's stage 3 is reasonably flat again, with a small climb 25km or so from the finish, though the weather isn't expected to improve and it could be another tough day in the saddle.
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How it unfolded
The peloton was five riders light after the opening day of attrition, with Michael Schar (BMC), Matteo Bono (UAE Team Emirates) and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) all crashing out, while Jonathan Hivert missed the time cut and Romain Bardet was disqualified for holding onto a team car.
The chaos on the opening day began to unfurl after some 50km, but today it kicked off almost from the gun, with an attack of nine or so riders triggering the echelons and the panic. That group was pegged back but soon there were echelons all over the road, with a frantic scramble for position. Some 50 riders emerged at the head of the race, but for the time being there were no big-name losers, save for sprinter Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie).
That all changed, however, when a crucial split just after the 40km mark left a group of 22 out front, with a number of favourites dropped. Among those straggling were Porte, Contador, Simon Yates, Ion Izagirre, and Dan Martin. The gap was small at first, with the make-up of the group constantly changing as some tried to jump across and others were placed in the gutter and lost contact.
The group did settle, however, and established a clear lead. The 22 riders in there were: Degenkolb, Demare, Zakarin, Kristoff, Alaphilippe, Kittel, Henao, Laporte, Sven Erik Bystrom (Katusha-Alpecin), Mitch Docker (Orica-Scott), Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Timo Roosen and Maarten Wynants (Lotto-Jumbo), Luke Rowe (Team Sky), Davide Cimolai, Ignatas Konovalovas and Marc Sarreau (FDJ), Florian Senechal and Geoffrey Soupe (Cofidis), Ben Swift (UAE), Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Evaldas Siskevicius (Delko-Marseille).
Henao and Alaphilippe, who both made it into the front group on the first day, were big beneficiaries from a GC perspective, while Zakarin was also taking time.
Contador led the large group of 60 or so behind, chasing along with the other GC men, but Porte was nowhere to be seen. As Contador found himself nearly two minutes down, Porte was a further minute back. His race would only continue to go one way, his hopes of a third overall title swept away in the wind, while Contador and co rallied and began to establish a proper chase.
With a large number of riders in there, including Simon Yates and his teammates – who had initially been dropped - the group slowly but surely began to eat into the gap, and they duly re-joined the head of the race with just over 60km remaining.
The subsequent attacks came almost immediately, with Bystrom, Gallopin, Wynants, Sarreau and Siskevicius skipping clear, and Gilbert then producing a mighty effort to bridge across. They picked a good moment to attack, with the peloton of sorts enjoying a brief respite, and they managed to open a lead of over a minute. Sarreau was dropped due to a puncture, while Gilbert claimed three seconds on GC by winning the intermediate sprint.
The peloton, lead mostly by the FDJ team of race leader Arnaud Demare, never panicked and, with the wind no longer blowing from the side, they steadily went about shutting down the gap.
With 20km remaining, it was down to 30 seconds, and Gilbert felt it was time to shake things up and go solo. His breakaway companions almost immediately fell away, and Gilbert, amazingly wearing fingerless gloves, ploughed on, with a lead of around 45 seconds going into the final 10km. That came down rapidly, however, as he battled into a headwind on the long straight road to Amilly, and he sat up with around 7km to go.
Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) then tried an attack but made no impact whatsoever, and Cannondale's Kristijan Koren fared a little better but was soon reeled in.
Demare looked in the best position going into the final kilometre, tucked in behind his leadout man at the head of affairs, but Colbrelli got the jump. The Frenchman was quickly on his wheel and it seemed there was enough ground to pull it back, but the efforts of the day told – Demare had done a lot of work earlier in the front split – and Colbrelli celebrated the biggest win of his career, bursting into tears past the finish line.
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