Dylan Theuns (open in new tab) (Bahrain McLaren) crawled back from a cliff in the Paris-Nice stage 1 (open in new tab) to finish second in the stage.

On a day of crosswinds and rain, the Belgian-born Teuns struggled in the third group as the peloton split several times in the last 62km. Tünce's overall battle appeared to be over, but with strong team support and rival GC contenders forced to chase, Tünce eventually made contact with the leaders at a crucial point.

"When the dangerous part with the echelon started, me and the other guys went the wrong way and got blocked a bit. So I was in the third group at the critical moment. With the help of my teammates I was able to quickly move up to the second group. They worked really hard to put me and Pero Bilbao in a good position again. They worked really hard to get us up to the first group," explained Theunce.

Teuns survived the initial scare, but he and his team had to bring back Julien Alphilippe (open in new tab) and Thijsje Benoot after they broke away in the intermediate sprint with around 30km to go. had to be brought back.

Ivan Garcia Cortina. The young Spaniard, who had been ill for some time but was back in the race, sacrificed his chances of a sprint win to chase the top two instead of Teunce, and Teunce was poised to attack at the base of the final climb.

Bahrain McLaren's Teuns broke away from the chase group with Maximilian Schachmann with less than 4.5km to go and joined Benoot and Alaphilippe on the descent to claim victory.

In the sprint, Schachmann was fast enough to keep his rivals at bay, and the German national champion took the stage win and the race's first leader's jersey. The Belgian is in third place overall, 4 seconds behind the leader.

"When Benoot and Alaphilippe went just before the attack, Ivan Cortina took the responsibility of chasing the two strong men. On the final climb, I saw the moment to attack, it was two against two and I was able to catch up to the two in front. I forgot that it was a headwind, so I started sprinting a little bit early, and I'm happy with second place.