Nacer Bouhanni (left) was relegated after colliding with Michael Matthews (right) with the race leader awarded the stage win ©Getty Images

Race leader Michael Matthews secured his second victory in three days after France’s Nacer Bouhanni was relegated following a sprint finish on stage two of Paris-Nice.

The 213.5 kilometres stage was always expected to end in a sprint finish due the flat nature of the course, with the Australian Matthews expected to remain in the race lead of an event that is part of the International Cycling Union WorldTour. 

A four-man group of Ethiopia’s Tsgabu Grmay, Austria’s Mathias Brandle, France’s Anthony Delaplace and Lithuania’s Evaldas Siskevicius attacked from the start of the stage in Contres in a hopeful bid to displace the Orice-GreenEdge rider.

At the 25km mark the quartet had built a lead of over 10 minutes, forcing the peloton to increase the pace to keep them at a manageable distance.

After their ascent of the third category Cote d'Estivareilles,  with 30km of the race left, the lead had reduced to less than a minute with the pace in the breakaway group significantly falling.

The peloton reeled in the move with 12km left to race, the sprinters' teams positioning themselves for the run in to the finish line at Commentry.

Cofidis’ Bouhanni launched the sprint inside the final metres of the race and held off the challenge of Matthews and Italy’s Niccolo Bonifazio to cross the line in a winning time of 5 hours 04min 26sec.

On closer inspection, the race jury deemed that Bouhanni had deviated from his racing line during the sprint, moving left to block Matthews along the barriers.

They relegated the sprinter to third place on the stage, giving Matthews another victory.

After two flat stages an undulating route will be tackled by the peloton tomorrow
After two flat stages an undulating route will be tackled by the peloton tomorrow ©Getty Images

“I think Bouhanni changed his line, I nearly crashed,” Matthews said.

“It's always difficult to sprint at the end of such a long stage.

“It's unfortunate but either way I would have won because I was coming around him and I would have won if we hadn't touched.

“Two out of three, it's exceptional.”

The win also helped Matthews to extend his overall race lead to 14 seconds over Dutchman Tom Dumoulin.

New Zealand’s Patrick Bevin, Britain’s Geraint Thomas and Spain's Jon Izagirre are all 19 seconds off the pace,.

Australia’s Richie Porte lies 27 seconds down as he looks to defend his title.

Stage three is due to see the peloton tackle a 166km undulating route from Cusset to Mont Brouilly tomorrow.