Max Kanter (XDS-Astana) surprised the favourites with victory on stage 2 of Paris-Nice, conquering a messy sprint into Montargis for the biggest victory of his career and first at WorldTour level.He was delivered into the final run for home by a stellar work Mike Teunissen lead-out, and after he hit the front with just a couple of hundred metres left to complete, neither Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) nor Jasper Stuyven (Soudal-QuickStep) could come around him.The German only had the chance to sprint after a late breakaway try from Daan Hoole (Decathlon-CMA CGM) was brought back in the final kilometre, having attacked 20km from the line during a lull in the pace.Hoole was chased down mostly by NSN Cycling team and Movistar, but after several narrowings of the road in the finale and a crash in the last kilometre, their assigned sprinters, Biniam Girmay and Orluis Aular, weren't even able to contest the final sprint."Mike [Teunissen] did an unbelievable pull into the final roundabout, and then did the perfect lead-out, so I had to finish it off in the last 200 metres," said Kanter after the finish."This morning in the bus, I didn't even know if I would finish this stage, as the last couple of days I've really not felt good on the bike, and now I've won the stage. "Paris-Nice is one of the biggest races in the world and it's really great to win a stage here."Despite getting boxed in during the sprint, Luke Lamperti (EF Education-EasyPost) held onto the yellow jersey, but did see his lead in the general classification cut to zero seconds, after Vito Braet (Lotto-Intermarché) nabbed six bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint. They will start Tuesday's stage on the same time, but the overall lead will likely pass to one of the top GC teams. Stage 3 is a team time trial, where the likes of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) – who gained four seconds at the intermediate sprint today – will look to flex their team strength in Pouilly-sur-Loire.
