Henderson wins Paris-Nice second stage

Belgian Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil) holds the leader's jellow jersey after the 199km run from Montfort-l'Amaury, west of Paris, to Amilly in central France.

Henderson, already winner of the first sprint last year, clocked five hours and 56 seconds to finish just ahead of Australia's Matthew Goss (HTC-Highroad) and Russia's Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha).

"It was a very fast sprint at the end of a very tiring and nervy day," said Henderson.

"Thankfully I could count on Geraint Thomas, he has this capacity to spark the sprint. It was a long sprint but feeling victory within my grasp gave me wings."

The Sky rider added that he was next bidding to take the overall leader's jersey as he bids to earn a place on the Tour de France team.

"The next stage? I'm going to try and go after the yellow jersey," said Henderson, who is four seconds behind de Gendt in the overall standings.

"My objective is the Tour de France, I'm hoping to race it this year unlike last year. We have an impressive team so it's hard to win a place."

French trio

A three-man break including Yoann Offredo (FDJ), Maxime Bouet (AG2R) and Tony Gallopin (Cofidis) escaped from the gun under sunny but cool conditions.

Their lead rapidly increasedand reached five minutes at the 23km mark in Rambouillet. Vacansoleil, protecting overall race leader Thomas de Gendt, checked the trio's margin that remained stable at around five minutes as they crossed Gallopin’s birthplace of Dourdan.

Gallopin also won thesprint held in Pussay (66km), close to his family’s home.The pace was faster than in the first stage and too fast for Cofidis leader David Moncoutie, who gave up after 50km with a knee injury.

Two is better…

The gap decreased until Offredo was asked by his team chiefs to wait for the peloton (81km), leaving Gallopin and Bouet to continue their move.The duo gained a maximum time gap in excess of of six minutes but gap, which had gone down to three minutes, went up again. But after 100 km, the peloton, led by Team Sky, decided to raise the tempo.

While several riders weredropped, Argentina’s Lucas Haedo (Saxo Bank) crashed into a motorbike and gave up. Hampered by headwind, the peloton ceased to chase toohard and the break regained momentum.

Train stop

The gap continued to go up and down as the pack, mainly controlled by De Gendt’s Vacansoleil team, played hide and seek. A few crashes tookplace, the most notable involving Luxembourg’s Frank Schleck, who was escorted by four team-mates back into the peloton.

The secondsprint at the 153.5km mark was won by Gallopin ahead of Bouet but De Gendt did not miss his chance to take third place and bag a one-second bonus.

After 160km of racing, Bouet and Gallopin were halted by a railway crossing, which also stopped the main pack. The two were allowed to start againwith their 45sec lead over the peloton at the time of the interruption.

Six kilometres later, Gallopin decided to call it a day, leaving Bouet alone in the front.

Crashes

The AG2R rider was caught with 30km to go, as the bunch was again hit by several pile-ups. Heinrich Haussler (Garmin) fell into a roadsideditch shortly before Tony Martin (THR) was also stopped by a collective crash involving Vladimir Gusev (Katusha).

As the peloton regrouped, Astana took it in their own hands to toughen the race in the last 15 km, causing more splits. Several riders weredropped but the mass sprint was unavoidable.

HTC-Highroad riders led the way for Goss but were unable to react when Geraint Thomas surgedand led out for Henderson.

Haussler recovered from his crash to finish fourth ahead of Peter Sagan.

HTC-Highroad's Martin Velits did not start the second stage after injuring his shoulder in a heavy fall the previous day.

Results from stage two:
1. Greg Henderson (Nzl) Sky Procycling 5:00:56, 2. Matthew Harley Goss (Aus) HTC-Highroad, 3. Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Katusha Team, 4. Heinrich Haussler (Aus) Team Garmin-Cervelo, 5. Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondal.

General classification after stage two:
1. Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 9:05:48, 2. Greg Henderson (NZl) Sky Procycling 0:00:04, 3. Jérémy Roy (Fra) FDJ 0:00:07, 4. Matthew Harley Goss (Aus) HTC-Highroad 0:00:08, 5. Tony Gallopin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne.

Twitter

"The wind made it a dangerous day at Paris-Nice. A Πήγασος race without parachutes would have been more safe." -@TheDPate (HTC-Highroad's Danny Pate) reflects on the second stage of the Paris-Nice.