Henderson claims stage win in Paris-Nice

New Zealand’s cycling prowess on the world stage continued today when Greg Henderson took out the sprint finish to claim the second stage of the prestigious Paris-Nice race.

Henderson’s win follows the overall victory by fellow New Zealander Jesse Sergent for his Radioshack team in Belgium at the weekend.

Henderson, riding for Team Sky, won the sprint finish in after the 199km stage into Amilly today to hold off Matt Goss (HTC Highroad) Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) and Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Cervelo).

He was set up well by team-mate and leading British track rider Geraint Thomas for the win, which is his third stage win in the famous race.

“I had a great lead-out from teammate G (Geraint Thomas), : Henderson told television after the race. “We were waiting and waiting and then he went with 500metres to go. I went early at about 250-300 metres but I hung on all the way to the line.

“I was motivated for this because I knew that if I got close on each day I could take the yellow jersey.”

Henderson had to be content with second overall on general classification and is aiming to hold on in tomorrow’s hillier stage with the potential of getting into yellow.

He also leads the sprint points classification.