Emotional Sonny Colbrelli sprints to win in Stage Two of Paris-Nice

Updated 06/03/2017 at 20:46 GMT

Sonny Colbrelli won Stage Two of Paris-Nice in a bunch sprint, before breaking down in tears on the kerb.

Italy's Sonny Colbrelli celebrates as he crosses the finish line at the end of the 195 km second stage of the 75th edition of the Paris-Nice

Image credit: Eurosport

The Italian held of John Degenkolb of Germany on the route from Rochefort-en-Yvelines to Amilly, with French favourite Arnaud Demare - who won the first stage on Sunday and retains the overall race lead - in third.

It came after a breakaway from Kristijan Koren with less then 3km to go but the Slovenian was finally caught with 1500m left.

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.

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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.

"It's the greatest victory of my career," Colbrelli said.

"It's incredible. I managed a perfect sprint and to beat riders like Degenkolb or even (Marcel) Kittel just shows that."

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.

"I think we can learn more from a day like that than we do winning. It was a tough day for everyone, the whole peloton. No one is more disappointed than me, but I think I can repay my team mates later in the week with the time trial and other stages by going for the win there."

After the wind and rain of Monday, the peloton makes its way towards Chalon-sur-Saone on Tuesday.