Bryan Coquard: "I'm obviously disappointed because we always come to win"

Cofidis have gotten Bryan Coquard off to a strong start to the season with wins at Etoile de Bessèges and Tour de la Provence. The French sprinter was expected to perform at Paris-Nice and he's delivering, but just missed out on a win today as he was face-to-face with an unbeatable Mads Pedersen.

"It was a very good stage. I'm obviously disappointed because we always come to win. I made a mistake by giving way to Van Aert 500 meters from the finish but I couldn't fight too much physically in the wind next to him. It was clearly a sprint that I liked and this second place comes at the right time after yesterday when we were rather unlucky collectively," Coquard said after the finish. Whilst on the opening day Coquard rode a very strong finish, he saw the Jumbo-Visma trio run away with the win. Yesterday in Orléans he struggled with the crosswinds, making it to the front group but in the end lacking the legs to contest for the stage win.

"The legs are very good, that's why we accelerated a little at the end of the stage. Now it's a second Paris-Nice that will start. Ion and Guillaume have lost a bit of time and that will perhaps allow us to be offensive. I will do my best to fulfill my role as a model teammate alongside them," he concluded.

Although Coquard can climb, today's finale was likely his last chance to go for a stage win. All the stages from now on are too hard for him expect for stage six which finishes in Aubagne, but a breakaway is expected to run away with the win on that day.