After the peloton swallowed the last breakaways less than a kilometer from the finish line, the French world champion was perfectly led by his young teammate Remco Evenepoel in the final corners, and imposed his power on the sprint final, just ahead of his compatriot from TotalEnergies Fabien Doubey.
With this first victory of the season, Alaphilippe thus responds to Primoz Roglic, who reigned over the first stage but who will have to be wary of the Frenchman for the rest of the race.
"Few teams wanted to ride, I thought the breakaway was going to hold until the end... But in the end, the whole team did a huge job, Remco took the last corners perfectly. , I couldn't lose", greeted the Frenchman on arrival.
"There were three technical corners in the last kilometer, so you had to be well placed. We said to ourselves that in the event of a sprint finish, that was what to do, and Remco, with its power , was able to take the turns, restart, and behind, it really stretched the peloton", he analyzed.
Starting about thirty kilometers behind Ander Okamika's wheel, the final breakaway was caught with a red flame... Except Ibon Ruiz (Kern-Pharma), who resisted up to 400 meters from the line, before being swallowed up in turn by the peloton, led by Evenepoel.
The Basque, however, retains the jersey of best climber, his initial objective.
The leader of the Jumbo-Visma Primoz Roglic, here on Paris-Nice in the Col de Turini, March 12, 2022 FRANCK FIFE AFP / Archives
No big changes at the top of the general classification: only Ion Izagirre, eighth before the start of this second stage, is downgraded, and Jonas Vingegaard, Ben Tulett and Daniel Martinez thus each gain a rank on the table.
On Wednesday, the third stage will see the peloton make an incursion into the Basque province of Araba, between Laudio and Amurrio, for a stage punctuated by three third category bumps and two second category climbs.
© 2022 AFP