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Racing

Paris-Nice 2014: stage two – five observations

Geraint Thomas masks poor day for Team Sky while young riders take centre stage

With no time trials or big summit finishes, many of the WorldTour’s elite have opted to blood young riders at Paris-Nice, with their Grand Tour hopefuls instead competing at Tirreno-Adriatico. Vicenzo Nibali (Astana) and world champion Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) are certainly in the minority of big-name riders taking part as the two prepare for the Tour de France. Giro d’Italia hopefuls, instead, have for the most part opted for Tirreno-Adriatico instead.

Nacer Bouhanni displays the yellow jersey at the start of the race, with John Degenkolb looking after the white jersey of best young rider (pic: G.Demouveaux/ASO)

So, it is little surprise to see the young riders leading the way so far in the ‘Race to the Sun’. The three best-placed riders on stage two, Moreno Hofland, John Degenkolb and Nacer Bouhanni are aged 22, 25 and 23 respectively and Geraint Thomas is the only rider in the top five overall not also in contention for the white jersey. That may well change once the routes become more undulating, but the young sprinters are all at least seizing their chances. The WorldTour attracts criticism for having major races overlap, something the UCI has vowed to eradicate, but at least the ‘fixture congestion’ allows young riders the opportunity to compete on the biggest stage.

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