(Reuters) - Australian Richie Porte's hopes of winning the Paris-Nice for a third time all but vanished on a weather-ravaged second stage on Monday as he lost 14 minutes on the leaders. Just as on Sunday's opening stage, Porte (BMC) found himself on the wrong side of the splits in a peloton buffeted by gusting winds over the relatively flat 192.5km ride to Amilly. Italy's Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) took the stage victory, just ahead of Germany's John Degenkolb, in a reduced bunch sprint. With six stages remaining, Porte is now in 35th place, 15 minutes behind Demare. "It's not my kind of racing but I don't want to make excuses as to why I dropped," Porte said.

Source: The Star March 06, 2017 19:52 UTC