Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas remains 10th in the overall standings of the Paris-Nice after André Greipel of Germany sprinted to victory on the second stage.
The peloton had held a minute’s silence in memory of the 10 people, including three French athletes, killed in an Argentinian helicopter crash on Monday before Thomas, Germany’s Tony Martin and the Dutchman Lars Boom established a lead with five kilometres of the 172km stage between Saint-Aignan and Saint-Amand-Montrond remaining.
However, Greipel, assisted by his Lotto-Soudal team-mate Greg Henderson, reeled them in and held off the challenge of the French champion Arnaud Démare.
Thomas remains 13 seconds behind the overall leader, Michal Kwiatkowski of Poland, but the Welshman’s team-mate Bradley Wiggins slipped back to 42 seconds off the pace.