Per Strand Hagenes: "I had a nice opportunity to go for it, and when that happens, you take it"

October 11 ^th 2026 - 17:53

Per Strand Hagenes (Visma-Lease a Bike), winner of Paris-Tours 2026:

"It's a good feeling. To be honest, I didn't really believe in it during the race. I think I only started to believe with 500 metres to go. I was marking a lot to make sure we could at least have a sprint with Christophe [Laporte] for the win. During the day, I was suffering a little bit, but I kept fighting and always managed to come back. So, yeah, it was a nice day. It's a really nice result."

"I think since the Tour de France I've been suffering a little bit in training and struggling to find my legs. But today they were good enough again. Of course, it's a really nice feeling to end the season like this. [On the finale] I think it was quite clear. Christophe was saving himself for the sprint because I think he would be the fastest in that group. You could see in the end that he won the sprint there. So it was up to me to mark the moves. In the end, I had a nice opportunity to go for it, and of course, when that happens, you try to take it. It's nice. I have three weeks to celebrate now!"