Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) beat Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), 2nd, to win the second stage of Paris-Nice (WorldTour) in a sprint on Monday over 159.2 km between Auffargis in Orléans , without real difficulty, but exposed to the side wind. Frenchman Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) winner of the first stage on Sunday in Mantes-la-Ville – still well placed at the front with his teammate Wout van Aert – keeps his yellow jersey as leader in the general classification following his 3rd place in arrival in Orleans.
Philippe Gilbert made up the trio of the day at the front from the first kilometers with his teammate at Lotto Soudal, the Briton Matthew Holmes (to reinforce his climbing jersey) as well as the Frenchman Alexis Gougeard (B&B Hotels – KTM) . The three men will have counted nearly 6 minutes in advance, their adventure ending halfway through the race.
Curbs continued to punctuate the second half of the day’s stage. About thirty riders formed the leading peloton, cut in three for a moment. The Swiss Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) tried his luck just over 5km from the finish, but it was a duel between Jakobsen and van Aert that ended the sprint finish in the sprint.
Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), 6th, and Oliver Naesen (AG2R-Citroën), 9th, were in the top 10 at the finish.
Fabio Jakobsen, 25, signs the 31st victory of his career and the 6th in his last seven sprint finishes. Overall, Laporte is 5 seconds ahead of van Aert.
On Tuesday, the 3rd stage will take the peloton from Vierzon to Dun-le-Palestel following 190.8 km of a route marked by three 3rd category climbs in the second part of the stage and a slightly uphill finish (2.1 km at 3.3%). This 80th edition of Paris-Nice will end on Sunday.
