Is Visma trying to change a trend of positioning battles? "We stayed at the back to save energy ahead of the TTT," DS explains

Just like stage 1, the second day of Paris-Nice was quite calm for most GC contenders, including Visma | Lease a Bike's star Jonas Vingegaard. What was different about Monday's stage for the Dutch team was their approach to protecting Vingegaard. Rather than competing with sprint trains to stay towards front of the race until the final 3-kilometer protected zone, the group around Vingegaard sat back in peloton, saving their matches for tomorrow's key team time trial.

"It was a good day. We got through the stage well and were able to save energy for tomorrow," sports director Marc Reef said via team website.

The stage did not go without minor incidents, but none of the Visma riders got caught up, which meant it was a successful day for the bees. "There were a number of crashes, but we were never involved. We had made the decision to stay at the back to save energy, and in hindsight that proved to be the right choice."

With a team including time trial experts Edoardo Affini, Bruno Armirail and Victor Campenaerts, Visma will not aim to "just defend" their positions in the stage 3 team time trial, but rather aim to build a winning position for their Danish leader. "Now we are focusing on tomorrow's team time trial. That will be an important day," he concluded.