Max Kanter (XDS-Astana) surprised the favourites with victory on stage 2 of Paris-Nice, conquering a messy sprint into Montargis for the biggest victory of his career and first at WorldTour level.
He was delivered into the final run for home by a stellar work Mike Teunissen lead-out, and after he hit the front with just a couple of hundred metres left to complete, neither Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) nor Jasper Stuyven (Soudal-QuickStep) could come around him.
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Despite getting boxed in during the sprint, Luke Lamperti (EF Education-EasyPost) held onto the yellow jersey, but did see his lead in the general classification cut to zero seconds, after Vito Braet (Lotto-Intermarché) nabbed six bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint.
They will start Tuesday’s stage on the same time, but the overall lead will likely pass to one of the top GC teams. Stage 3 is a team time trial, where the likes of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) – who gained four seconds at the intermediate sprint today – will look to flex their team strength in Pouilly-sur-Loire.
How it unfolded
The flattest stage of this year’s Paris-Nice kicked off from Epône, still just west of France’s capital city, with the race’s journey south beginning over an 187-kilometre day to Montargis.
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