William Bonnet raced to victory on stage two of the Paris-Nice into Limoges on Tuesday afternoon.
The Frenchman took the win for the Bbox Bouygues Telecom team on the 201.5-kilometre trek from Contres after getting the better of Peter Sagan (Liquigas) in a drag to the line.
Reigning champion Luis Leon Sanchez finished in third for Caisse d'Epargne.
Nicolas Roche finished 35th in Tuesday's stage to sit 43rd overall, 55 seconds off the lead, while Daniel Martin is 1:12secs off the pace in 68th overall.
Overall leader Lars Boom (Rabobank) picked his way through a big crash less than a kilometre from home that wiped out Jimmy Casper (Saur-Sojasun), Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) and Dan Martin (Garmin-Transitions) to maintain his advantage at the front.
Tour de France champion Alberto Contador and stage one winner Greg Henderson (Team Sky) also finished in the peloton.
Boom is five seconds clear of Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank), while Britain's David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) surrended third place to Sanchez.
Boom was overhauled in the mountains classification, however, as Laurent Mangel (Saur-Sojasun) moved into pole position after a strong day on the climbs.
