Sweet victory for Laporte
October 6 th 2024 - 17:26
In the 118th edition of Paris-Tours it was Christophe Laporte (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) who took a classy victory in front of the fans on the Avenue de Grammont, outsprinting young Czech rider Mathias Vacek (Lidl - Trek) to the line. That pair had made it to the front of the race towards the end of the gruelling ride through the hills and vineyard paths en route to Tours and Laporte just had too much for Vacek at the finish. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin – Deceuninck) was the best of rest in the sprint behind the front two, crossing the line third at 21”, just ahead of Mike Teunissen (Intermarche – Wanty) and Alexis Renard (Cofidis).
A rainy autumn Sunday
The kilometre 0 marker was crossed at 12.09pm on the way out of Chartres with 156 riders present at the start. The quartet of Edoardo Affini (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), Mikel Retegi (Kern Pharma), Ceriel Desal (Bingoal WB) and Enzo Boulet (CIC-U-Nantes Atlantique) formed a breakaway after 13 km and their lead grew to over five minutes by km 43.9, at the end of the first hour of racing, despite a headwind.
Four leaders reduced to three
Soon the peloton would increase their pace and the advantage of the breakaway had been reduced to 3’25” by the km 75 mark, with another minute shaved off at km 95. After a crash for Desal he fell back from the breakaway and was caught by the peloton before the half way point of the race, with the trio of Affini, Retegi and Boulet remaining at the front of the race. They managed to stay ahead all the way to the first of the vineyard paths, even if their advantage over the peloton was only 1’35” by the time the race reached the first gravel sector (Km 146.7 - Chemin n°10: Limeray, 0.9km).
Pedersen counter attacks
Shortly before that Mads Pedersen (Lidl – Trek) went on the attack and he had closed to within a minute of the breakaway as he took on the first gravel sector. Pedersen pushed on, getting closer to the leading trio (+30") and with a 36" lead over the peloton with 60 kilometers to go, at the exit of vineyard path n°9 (Km 152.3 - Chemin n°9: Pocé-sur-Cisse, 1.1km). In a full demonstration of his talent, the Dane made it alone to join the leading trio with 56 km to go, making up a gap of two minutes in just 14 kilometers, with the peloton still one minute behind.
No collaboration with Pedersen
Unfortunately for Pedersen, though, what became briefly a leading quartet did not collaborate and only Affini was left on Pedersen's wheel on vineyard path n°8 (Grosse Pierre), 50km from the finish. Under the impetus of Lewis Askey (Groupama - FDJ) the peloton came back to within 20" of the leading pair, but Pedersen would not relent and got the hammer down again. Pedersen and his companion Affini, who continued to sit on his wheel, had a lead of about thirty seconds at the exit of the Château de Valmer gravel path (n°7), 45km from the finish. Christophe Laporte (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) and Mathias Vacek (Lidl – Trek) counter attacked to join the front group, which was subsequently reduced to three riders, as Affini was dropped on the Côte de la Rochère, with 28km to go.
Into the last 20 kilometres
Approaching the 20 km to go point Pedersen could not hang on with the front two and a group led by Valentin Madouas (Groupama – FDJ) was chasing hard, 20" behind the two remaining attackers Vacek and Laporte. After increasing the intensity the two leaders left the tenth and final vineyard path with a 35" lead over a counter-attacking group of around 30 riders, with just 13 km left to race. In the end Laporte used his experience and race craft to outfox the young Vacek at the finish, much to the delight of the passionate French crowd in Tours.
