Boom retains lead as Bonnet wins stage

Bonnet, 27, beat Slovakia's Peter Sagan and Spain's Luis Leon Sanchez in a sprint finish.

DutchmanLars Boom held on to the yellow jersey ahead of Germany's Jens Voigtwhile Sanchez moved up to third after an eventful finale.

"This is my first big win, I've been waiting a long time for it," said Bonnet.

"I managed to avoid the collision in the last mile and caught up with Sanchez, who started the sprint with 400 metres to go.

"Therewere only two days for sprinters in this Paris-Nice so I think that'sit for now but I have other goals in the early season - to do well inMilan-San Remo and in the spring classics, and above all Paris-Roubaix."

Sanchez said after the stage that he was going all out for first place but the elements got the better of him.

"I felt great. I decided to get involved in the sprint to try and win the stage.

"There was a strong headwind, which complicated things but I'm very satisfied with third."

Leadingup to the mass sprint France's Laurent Mangel, Italy's Mauro Finettoand Dutchmen Koen De Kort and Jens Mouris broke away for a long escapebut were brought back by the peloton after 183 kilometres.

Slovenia'sGrega Bole, who finished second in Monday's race, fell in the finalsprint along with Bonnet's compatriot Jimmy Casper.

Caisse d'Epargne Sanchez attacked immediately after the pile-up, followed by Sagan, but a persistent Bonnet grabbed the win.

Two-timeTour de France winner Alberto Contador completed the stage withoutincident after falling on Monday and bruising his leg.

The third stage is a 208-kilometre ride between Saint-Junien and Aurillac on Wednesday.

Stage 2: Contres - Limoges 201.5km

1William Bonnet (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom 4:22:40, 2 Peter Sagan (Svk)Liquigas - Doimo, 3 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne, 4 MircoLorenzetto (Ita) Lampre - Farnese Vini, 5 Juan Jose Haedo (Arg) TeamSaxo Bank, 6 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne, 7 TomVeelers (Ned) Skil - Shimano, 8 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Team Katusha, 9Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team, 10 Francesco Chicchi(Ita) Liquigas - Doimo.

General classification:

1 LarsBoom (Ned) Rabobank 8:55:51, 2 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:05,3 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:10, 4 David Millar(GBr) Garmin - Transitions 0:00:13, 5 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas -Doimo 0:00:15, 6 Gregory Henderson (NZl) Sky Professional Cycling Team0:00:20, 7 Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas - Doimo 0:00:23, 8 LeviLeipheimer (USA) Team RadioShack 0:00:25, 9 Alberto Contador (Spa)Astana, 10 Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo Test Team 0:00:29.