Orica-GreenEDGE's Michael Matthews Leads After Stage Two at Paris-Nice
09 March 2016
After winning the prologue on his SCOTT Plasma and finishing a respectable fifth place in stage one, Orica-GreenEDGE rider Michael Matthews was awarded the win in a tight finish that saw Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis Solutions Credits) relegated for interfering with the 25-year-old's sprint during the finish into Commentry.
Paris–Nice is an important early-season stage race in France that starts with a prologue in Paris and ends in Nice. It's one of the first races of the professional season and it takes place in the first half of March. The seven stages of the race are well known to be an important test for teams due to the bad weather conditions that normally are present during the whole week.
The second stage was definitely not an exception with cold temperature for all 213.5 km.
With the victory in stage two on his SCOTT Foil Michael Matthews increased his lead in the general classification by 14 seconds.
"He (Bouhanni) changed his line a little bit in the sprint," explained Matthews, who was promoted from second to first place. "When you've opened up your sprint after a hard stage like that it's hard to sprint in a straight line."
"I think I probably would have come past him in the sprint, but it's racing. It's unfortunate it needs to be like that but it is what it is. As you could see I had a lot of speed when I was coming past, so it would have been a win either way.
"It's definitely amazing to get another stage win - that's two out of three now. It was an uphill sprint so it suited me a lot better than yesterday."
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