New Zealand's Laurence Pithie of Groupama-FDJ celebrates in the yellow jersey of leader in the overall ranking after the second stage of the Paris-Nice race, 2024. Photo: AFP
New Zealand cyclist Laurence Pithie has taken the overall lead on the Paris-Nice Tour.
The 22 year old Groupama-FDJ rider was second in a sprint finish to stage two.
He was third in the opening stage and following today's result he was handed the tour leaders yellow jersey.
Pithie shares the same time as Mads Pedersen of Denmark and Dylan Groenewegen of the Netherlands
He also leads the points and youth categories.
"I was definitely not expecting it this morning but it's very nice to wear the yellow jersey in a race like this," he told the race website.
"You're always fighting for the stage win. It's a bit disappointing not to have won it but De Kleijn (Dutchman Arvid de Kleijn) was super fast and he had a fantastic lead-out. I was able to follow the Tudor train and it was the right one to follow.
"It's definitely surprising as it's my first World Tour stage race in Europe and I take each day as an experience. It's great for the future.
"Now I'm looking forward to help our leader David Gaudu. Tomorrow is a really hard day but we'll try to keep the jersey and do a good team work for David. We'll be starting last so we'll be able to see what the other teams are doing and try to learn from it."
The eight stage tour continues tomorrow with a 27km team time trial.
Paris-Nice, is nicknamed 'The Race to the Sun' and is the traditional start to the european season.
Pithie became the youngest winner of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean race in January.
He won two world junior track titles in 2019.