"Today was a good training session": Daan Hoole enjoyed his audacious solo attack in Paris-Nice

The second stage of this year's Paris-Nice had "sprint finish" written all over it. Among a mix of hilly and mountain stages, the Monday's transfer was the only opportunity offered by organizers to true sprinters, and Max Kanter (XDS Astana) emerged victorious in Montargis. But one man - Daan Hoole - dared to dream with an attack from far out, hoping to expose the limited support most teams dedicated to their sprinters, if they brought any at all.

The Decathlon CMA CGM rider took off with over 20 kilometers to go as peloton left the suburbs of Paris, and was only caught will about 750 meters to go by the last few domestiques left in peloton.

"My attack certainly wasn't planned, but Cees Bol (Decathlon's sprinter, ed.) crashed. Mark (team director Mark Renshaw) then asked from the team car if I wanted to sprint or save my legs for tomorrow. I'm not a sprinter, so I decided to attack, hoping to surprise the sprinters," Hoole told about the origins of his heroic effort at Eurosport microphone afterwards.

At one point, Hoole's lead grew to half a minute. "You know that once you've built up a lead, they have to ride really hard in the peloton to catch you back. It's a shame I just missed out on the win, but it was a good effort. It's fun to race on adrenaline in a final like this."

Did the 27-year-old time trialist actually think about victory along the way? "I tried to believe in it, but it's difficult. You know a peloton like that is coming at you really hard in the final, once the lead-out riders are hitting full throttle. You try to believe in it, of course. It's just a matter of riding as hard as you can and not looking back."

Hoole was consequently selected for the Combativeness Award following his solo ride.

However the Dutch champion already has Tuesday's team time trial in mind. Team leader Nicolas Prodhomme will rely on Hoole among others to protect his GC bid with view to the weekend: "It's a very important day for the team. We've practiced a lot for it during our training camps and also last week at the Paul Ricard circuit. We're looking forward to it. Today was a good training session," he concludes.