Paris-Nice | 2 for 2 as Tim Merlier takes another high-speed sprint victory

Tim Merlier is without a doubt the fastest sprinter at Paris-Nice and today on stage 2 he has taken his second consecutive win of the week in a bunch sprint for Soudal - Quick-Step, in a day marked by the crashes.

A flat day, with no wind blowing and no climbs or descents in the way, but by no means a calm one. The peloton in France would be in for a roller-coaster but at the start of the day only a small breakaway of three put some spice into the day. Jonas Abrahamsen, Samuel Fernandéz and Alexandre Delettre were the day's escapees.

The fast-moving peloton saw the group getting caught quite early on, but Abrahamsen attacked once again and went solo off the front throughout the majority of the final 50 kilometers. He would avoid the chaos in the peloton where several crashes affected it. First Guillaume Martin; then a mass crash including Arnaud Démare (teammate Florian Sénéchal was forced to abandon the race)...

At the intermediate sprint Matteo Jorgenson snatched two more bonus seconds whilst behind another crash took place and split the peloton, catching out riders like João Almeida, Mattias Skjelmose and Ben O'Connor. The split was then undone shortly after however, and Abrahamsen was then reeled in with 2.5 kilometers to go.

The bunch sprint was true chaos, with no team having a full leadout into the final kilometer but instead moving in two's. Axel Zingle of Visma tried to take advantage of it and launched an early sprint, but he was followed by Arnaud Démare. The sprinters launched their bid for the line but the face at the front was the same as Tim Merlier blasted off to victory once again. Emilien Jearnnière and Hugo Page completed the podium.