Mads Pedersen wins the second stage of Paris-Nice and the leader’s yellow jersey
Dane Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) won the second stage of Paris-Nice in a sprint after 164 kilometers. He becomes the new leader of the General classification. He outstripped Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) and his compatriot Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) with authority.
Tadej Pogacar second overall
Third in the general classification before the 2nd stage, the 24-year-old Slovenian grabbed a place on Monday and is now in 2nd place. Arrived in 55th position, he took advantage of his six bonus seconds won at the end of the intermediate sprint, as in the previous step.
Jonas Gregaard best climber
The start of the race was very quickly marked by the breakaway of one man: Jonas Gregaard. The Dane from the Uno-X Pro team took off after 5 km before gradually widening the gap. The peloton was relegated up to 4 minutes.
Alone in the ascent of the first difficulty of the day, the coast of Granges-le-Roi (1.4 km at 4.3%), he pocketed the 3 points in the mountain classification to virtually take the lead. . At the 103rd kilometer, he then pocketed three more by going first to the top of the Méréville coast (806 m at 4.4%), thus securing the best climber’s polka dot jersey, which he will wear from Tuesday for the third stage. His breakaway ended 53 kilometers from the finish, leaving the sprinter teams to organize themselves for the end of the race.
On the French side, two French people finished in the top 10: Alexis Renard (Cofidis), 9th and Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ), 10th. Pierre Latour was the victim of a fall 38 kilometers from the line but was able to continue the race.
