Matthews takes another stage as Bouhanni punished

COMMENTRY, France — Race leader Michael Matthews took his second stage victory at this year's Paris-Nice after Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni was disqualified from Tuesday's sprint finish. Australian Matthews was blocked in by Bouhanni who swerved wildly toward the Orica GreenEdge rider just 20 yards from the line. The 25-year-old Matthews, the race leader who also won Sunday's opening prologue, looked set to storm past the Cofidis rider down the inside before Bouhanni leant into the Aussie, practically pushing him into the side railing. His stage two victory allowed Matthews to extend his race lead as he took a 10-second bonus on the line. Italy's Niccolo Bonifazio was promoted to second with Bouhanni, 25, demoted to third on the stage, a 214km run from Contres to Commentry. A four-man breakaway of Ethiopian Tsgabu Grmay, Matthias Brandle, Anthony Delaplace and Evaldas Siskevicius had spent almost 200km in the lead but the last two remnants, Brandle and Siskevicius, were finally caught 12km from the end. That set up a sprint finish in which Matthews, racing in his first event of 2016, came up trumps after a review by the race commissaires. Wednesday's third stage is a 168km run from Cusset to Mont Brouilly with its 3km finishing climb at an average 7.7 percent gradient that favors specialist punchers. Tour of Germany set for relaunch The Tour of Germany, mothballed since 2008, is to be relaunched by Tour de France organizers ASO in either 2017 or 2018, it was announced Tuesday. ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation) and the German cycling federation signed a joint 10-year agreement to relaunch the Deutschland Tour within the next two years. The agreement comes with the 2017 Tour de France set to start in the German city of Duesseldorf and the return of Tour de France coverage on mainstream German television after a three-year absence in a backlash to doping issues plaguing the sport. "A dynamic was created with the Grand Depart in 2017, the return of ARD television and German riders who stand out at the highest level," Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme told AFP. Prudhomme said he had already been in touch with several riders concerning the new Tour. Andre Greipel, winner of four stages on last year's Tour de France, was one of them, with Prudhomme saying: "He got back to me straight away. He was very happy." The modalities of the relaunched race, such as its length and place in the calendar, are yet to be decided. — Agencies