"We had made a big goal of this team time trial” - Magnus Cort Nielsen not surprised after taking race lead at Paris-Nice

Despite Jumbo-Visma taking victory on the stage two, team time-trial at Paris-Nice, it was EF Education-EasyPost's Magnus Cort Nielsen who rode into the Yellow Jersey of race lead.

“I am very happy with this. I didn't immediately expect to wear the yellow now," said a delighted Magnus Cort to in an interview following the stage. 

The fact that EF had come so close to the stage win and managed to place a rider into the race lead was no accident however. "As a team we had made a big goal of this team time trial,” Nielsen explained. "We dreamed of victory and so this is not very unexpected. A team time trial is and remains a difficult discipline. I thought it was a nice track. It wasn't very technical, but it wasn't completely flat either. It was important to find a certain speed and to maintain it.”

“Tomorrow is a tough day, but I will do my best to keep the jersey,” he concluded, but with Jonas Vingegaard only 3 seconds behind and with a challenging stage including climbs of 7% only time will tell if the Dane can succeed.