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Bonus Seconds
Paris Nice is one of the races that offer bonus seconds out on the course and at the finish line. This means that for this stage, two designated places along the route the first three riders to cross the assigned piece of road would get a 3, 2 and 1 second bonus respectively. At the finish line, it is a 10, 6 and 4 second bonus for the top three placings. These bonus seconds can change who will lead or even when the overall race, so it was Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-Quickstep) that went out to try and get the remain 1 second bonus at the second intermediate sprint point. But it was Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) who put in a hard sprint to nip him at the line, showing that he wanted to start laying the ground work to take the overall by the time the race reaches Nice.