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La Chapelle-Saint-Ursin
195.5 km
Monday 9 March
His crash having taken place in the last three kilometres, ALberto Contador retained his yellow jersey.
Australia’s Mark Renshaw (Columbia High Road) was second ahead of Italy’s Mirco Lorenzetto (Lampre).
Young German Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo) wins the second stage.
Yellow jersey holder Alberto Contador was held in a crash which took place at the back of the peloton. Nothing serious for the Paris-Nice favourite.
The peloton is gearing up for the mass sprint. FDJ, Skil Shimano, Columbia and Lampre are in the front.
Skil Shimano have taken the reins with 4 kms to go.
The race is in the suburbs of Bourges. The town hosted Paris-Nice three times. The first stage winner in 1957 was Belgium’s Desire Keteleer and the last stage winner was another Belgian, Tom Steels in 1997. Bourges was also the start of a Tour de France stage won by Barry Hoban in 1973 and is the classic finish of the Paris-Bourges classic.
Revealed last year on Paris-Nice, Rolland is caught by the 15-kms sign.
Pierre Rolland (BBox Bouygues Telecom) attacks with 17 kms to go.
The groupe of some 40 riders at the back have now made the junction with the rest of the pack.
Christophe Laurent fights on as the breakaway is reined in with 23 kms to go.
The break looks doomed with the gap now down to 30 seconds with 25 kms to go.
The dropped part of the main pack also includes green jersey holder Bradley Wiggins (Garmin) and Sandy Casar (FDJ).
The peloton splits again and the dropped bunch again includes David Moncoutie.
Km 165 - The gap is down to 2:05. Cervelo are leading the chase.
Km 164 - The lead of the four escapees is now down to 2:50. The break looks in serious jeopardy.
The gap keeps diminishing. Rooijakkers, Kucschynski, Laurent and Hernandez only hold a 3:05 lead over the peloton, which has regrouped.
Km 161 - The gap is now reduced to exactly four minutes.
The four escapees were in La Chapelle St Ursin for a bonus sprint won by Christophe Laurent ahead of Kuschynski and Rooijakkers. The bunch crossed the line 4:25 behind.
The peloton is now led by Quick Step riders who have raised the tempo. The Cadel Evans groups are now 25 seconds behind the main pack.
After the crash, the peloton has split in several bunches. Cadel Evans (Silence Lotto), David Moncoutie (Cofidis) and Vladimir Karpets (Katusha) are in a group of 16 riders who have lost touch with the main pack.
A crash took place at the back of the bunch. It involved Vladlimir Efimkin (AG2R), Kevin De Weert(Quck Step), Jose Luis Arrieta (AG2R), Gustav Larsson (Team Saxo Bank)and Jose Gomez Merchante (Cervelo.
Christophe Laurent, one of the four escapees, had also been very active in the Race to the Sun three years ago when he took part in two breakaways, failing close to the finish. Laurent was already with Agritubel at the time, a team he rejoined this season after a spell with Garmin last year.
The FDJ effort seems to pay off as the lead goes under seven minutes again (6:50 at kilometre 134).
La Francaise des Jeux take the reins of the peloton as the lead again exceeds seven minutes. The FDJ riders are working for Sebastien Chavanel, arguably one of the best sprinters in the Paris-Nice field this year.
Belarussian Aleksandr Kuschynski is inspired by Paris-Nice. Last year he had taken part in two breaks, notably in the stage leading from Montelimar to the Ventoux.
The four escapees seem to raise the tempo a little bit with 65 kms left before the finish. The lead goes up to 6:35.
The gap between the four escapees and the peloton remains stable at around six minutes at kilometre 118.
The gap between the four escapees and the peloton remains stable at around six minutes
The third hour average speed was 36.4 kph. The overall average speed is 39.8 kph.
Astana team chief Alain Gallopin made it clear Alberto Contador and his team-mates were not going to fight to keep the yellow jersey: "We’re going to maintain a steady gap with the four escapees and in the finale, if the sprinters teams want to go for it, let them do it. We’re not going to chase. We don’t mind losing the yellow jersey. None of the four riders in the lead is a threat for final victory. If the sprinters want that stage, it’s up for grabs. It will be their decision, not ours," he told www.letour.fr.
The gap remains stable at 5:35. The maximum lead of the four escapees was 7:35 at kilometre 59.
The average speed in the second hour of the race was 40.8 kph.
Spain’s Aitor Hernandez (Euskaltel) will take the best climber’s polka dot jersey at the finish.
Results at the top of the Cote de Crezabcy en Sancerre (km 89.5, 3rd cat)
1. Kuschynski 4
2. Hernandez 2
3. Rooijackers 1
Results at the top of the Cote de Crezabcy en Sancerre (km 89.5, 3rd cat)
1. Kuschynski 4
2. Hernandez 2
3. Rooijackers 1
Km 83 : The gap is down to 5:30 at the end of the feeding zone.
Km 83 : The gap is down to 5:30 at the end of the feeding zone.
Results at the top of the Cote de Sancerre (Km 81, 3rd cat):
1. Hernandez 4 points
2. Rooijakkers 2
3. Kuschynski 1
Km 70 - The lead has now gone down to 6:10.
The four escapees are tackling the first climb of the 67th Paris-Nice, the Cote de Sancerre (km 81).
Agritubel team director Emmanuel Hubert told www.letour.fr that Christophe Laurent had planned his move: "He told us this morning he was planning something. He had a little cold yesterday but obviously he feels better today. The four are working well together but everything is now in the hands of Astana. They’re maintaining the gap between five and seven minutes but if they join forces with the sprinters teams in the finale, it’ll be hard."
The peloton raises the tempo a little bit and the gap remains stable around seven minutes.
Km 53: The lead of the four reaches 7:15.
Result of the first sprint in Sury-pres-Lere (km 59):
1. Christophe Laurent (Agritubel) 3 seconds bonus and 3 points
2. Aleskandr Kuschynski (Liquigas) 2 secs and 2 points
3; Aitor Hernandez (Euskaltel) 1 sec and 1 point.
La Chapelle St Ursin, host of the stage finish today, hosted a stage start in 2004. The stage was going to Roanne and was won by Leon Van Bon.
Piet Rooijakkers, Aitor Hernandez, Aleksandr Kuschynski and Christophe Laurent reach kilometre 50 with a lead of more than six minutes over the peloton.
Km 45 - The gap between the break and the main bunch goes up again and reaches 5:55.
The first hour average speed was 42.2 kph.
The lead of the four goes down slighty to 5:05 (km 38).
Km 25: Rooijakkers, Hernandez, Laurent and Kuschynski now lead the main bunch by 5:15.
Rooijakkers, who is 28th overall, 34 seconds behind Contador, is the virtual Paris-Nice leader.
Third overall, Spain’s Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne), said he would take it easy in the next few stages to save strength for the finale: "The fact that Contador is now the leader is a good thing for us because the team Astana is the one which will have to control the race. We have to take it easy during the next stages because from Friday on the race will be very hard and it will be necessary to have many forces left,” said the winner of the Tour Mediterranean.
The Astana team of yellow jersey Alberto Contador lead the "chase" but the gap increases to 3:55 (km 10).
The escapees now lead the main bunch by 2:30 (Km 7). The peloton seems happy to let them go.
Piet Rooijackers (Skil Shimano) attacked from the start. He was joined by Aitor Hernandez (Euskaltel), Aleksandr Kuschynski (Liquigas) and Christophe Laurent (Agritubel). The four currently lead the bunch by 1:15 (km 5).
Bruised in a crash in yesterday’s first stage, American Christian Vandevelde started this morning.
"He’s OK, he was treated by the doctor last night and didn’t sleep too well but he’s OK," said his Garmin-Slipstream team director Lionel Marie.
The weather is cool at the start in St Brisson-sur-Loire, with seven degrees, the sun shining between a few clouds.
Thanks to his victory in the first stage, Alberto Contador will be wearing the yellow jersey in today’s stage, with Bradley Wiggins seven seconds adrift and Luis Leon Sanchez third, a further two seconds behind.
Contador also leads the points classification but the green jersey will be on Wiggins back. The Briton is three points behind the Spaniard in the points standings.
The young rider’s white jersey will be worn by Germany’s Tony Martin, who finished fourth on Sunday in Amilly.
Contador’s Astana leads the team classification.
No points were awarded for the best climber’s polka-dot jersey in the first stage hence the importance of today’s two third category climbs at mid-course.
The start was just given to 159 riders.
Km 81 – Cote de Sancerre (3rd cat)
Km 89.5 – Cote de Crezancy en Sancerre (3rd cat)
Km 59 – Sury-pres-Lere
Km 156.5 – La Chapelle-Saint-Ursin
Interviewed in Aujourd’hui, Briton David Millar is full of praise for Alberto Contador after his win in the first stage time trial: ”You don’t win three big Tours in one year if you don’t have something special. And then we tend to forget that he’s young and improving. That’s crazy. He really is impressive. It doesn’t look too good for Armstrong… “
In l’Equipe Philippe Bouvet insists on Bradley Wiggins’ disappointment at finishing seven seconds behind Contador, who is not a time trial specialist on paper: "If you lose by two seconds, you can always tell yourself that you braked once too often, but seven seconds is a lot," said Lionel Marie, the team director of Bradley Wiggins, the pursuit Olympic champion, second and not at all happy with the result. It must be said that to prepare for this precise goal, the Briton had gone to the length of leaving Spain, where he lives, to train especially in Manchester."
In local paper la Nouvelle RĂ©publique, Annaick Mainguy noted that Contador had gone full circle in Paris-Nice, claiming back the yelow jersey he had taken to Nice two years ago: "Kicked out of the Race to the Sun last year after ASO deemed his Astana team unwelcome, Alberto renewed his ties with the race he won in 2007 on his way to victory in his first Tour de France."
Welcome on the 195.5-kms second stage of Paris-Nice between St Brisson-sur-Loire and La Chapelle-Saint-Ursin. Stay tuned to www.letour.fr.
