Paris-Nice 2024: Arvid de Kleijn sprints to memorable first ever World Tour win on Stage 2

Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor Pro Cycling) secured his first World Tour victory on Stage 2 of Paris-Nice.

The Dutchman won out a tight bunch sprint to seal a famous win not just for himself, but for his team as well, with it being the Swiss team’s first victory at World Tour level in their second season as a ProTeam.

Quiet conditions wind-wise meant that proceedings were slow along the 177km from Thoiry to Montargis, but it was Tudor Pro who managed to implement their gameplan to full effect, getting De Kleijn in prime position to attack when it mattered with 2km to go around the two roundabouts.

Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) finished in second place, ahead of Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla). He also took six more bonus seconds, but couldn’t match De Kleijn’s sheer sprint speed at the death.

Pithie, the New Zealander, moves into the general classification leader’s yellow jersey after he was able to eat up bonus time to raise him above Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike), with the trio all on the same time coming into the second stage.

“I think I’ve been close a couple of times and I was chasing a WorldTour victory. It’s nice to grab it like this. Everybody could see it was a great team performance,” De Kleijn said afterwards.

“[Matteo Trentin] knew exactly what to do. He said we had to stay calm until the end and then he did an amazing pull and then I have the two Dutchies in front of me and they did an incredible job.

“Today was all in for me and it was nice to finish it off.

“I was the last 200 and I was a little bit boxed in by my own teammate. I screamed to the left so he opened up and I could go to the wheel of Van Poppel and I came with speed and kept it to the line.

“We are making big steps and I’m also personally making steps every year. I’m a little bit older than the rest but it’s nice to see I can still make improvements.”

Joshua Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) was the first Briton over the line in 23rd place, with Owain Doull (EF Education-EasyPost) coming in 32nd.