The riders wait at the start of the second stage
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Italian rider Davide Rebellin, of the Gerolsteiner team, took the overall lead of the Paris-Nice race after winning the 182.5km second stage.
Rebellin, the world number seven, took over the leader's yellow-and-white jersey from Australian national champion Stuart O'Grady.
The 31-year-old from Venice came in ahead of a small bunch of riders
who had made a breakaway on the last climb of the day, the Croix-de-Chabouret hill.
Rebellin came in with room to spare ahead of defending champion
Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan and Russian Alexandre Botcharov.
Italian Dario Frigo, the Fassa Bortolo rider
who is being tipped for overall victory, took fourth place ahead of
Spaniard Mikel Zarrabeitia and Volodymyr Gustov of the Ukraine.
Among the losers of the day were France's Sandy Casar, who came
second overall last year, Laurent Brochard and David Moncoutie, all of whom lost several minutes in the
overall standings.
Kazakhstan's Andrei Kivilev, who finished fourth in the 2001 Tour de France, is in a coma following a fall in Tuesday's stage.
The Cofidis team rider lost consciousness after his crash and was rushed to hospital with serious head and facial injuries.
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MMIX
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