2024-10-06 15:23:20
While the Lidl-Trek team animated the race in the last 70 kilometers, Christophe Laporte was able to have the last word against Mathias Vacek to win Paris-Tours when Jasper Philipsen completed the podium.
Christophe Laporte will have waited for his tenth participation to win in Paris-Tours. At the end of a very lively race by the Lidl-Trek team, the rider from the Visma-Lease a Bike team showed off his experience and his power in the final straight to win. After a relatively calm start, the breakaway candidates ended up distinguishing themselves.
A succession of attacks which allowed a quartet to take the lead in the race. There we found the European time trial champion Edoardo Affini, Mikel Retegi, Ceriel Desal and Enzo Boulet. While the peloton initially held tight to not let this group leave, it ended up giving an exit order. As a result, the gap began to grow and exceeded three minutes after just over 20 kilometers. Which was helped by a platoon which did not permanently guard its unit. It was once the difference had exceeded five minutes that the peloton began to react in order to avoid losing control of the situation. Victim of a fall, Ceriel Desal was unable to follow the rest of the breakaway and regained her place in the peloton.
Pedersen thought he was Pogacar
The Lidl-Trek team took responsibility by leading the pace of the peloton after a little over 100 kilometers and while the breakaway still had a margin of just over two minutes. Approaching the first of the ten vineyard paths on the program for this 118th edition of the “dead leaf classic”, concentrated on the last 75 kilometers of the course, the rain invited itself onto the race to make it even more complicated. . Taking advantage of the power of Edoardo Affini, the leading trio resisted the return of the peloton to maintain a lead close to two minutes. Except that the control of the riders of the Lidl-Trek team had the sole aim of preparing a Trafalgar coup signed Mads Pedersen.
The former world champion took advantage of the approach to the Côte de Limeray to leave alone with 70 kilometers still to go. The Dane then very quickly reduced his delay on the breakaway, closing two minutes in just fourteen kilometers before taking it upon himself to lead the pace and then blowing up the former members of the breakaway. Only Edoardo Affini was able to take his wheel at the start of the last 50 kilometers. In the peloton, after a failed reaction from Lewis Askey, it was Christophe Laporte who launched an offensive 33 kilometers from the goal.
Laporte winner in experience
The former European champion then saw Mathias Vacek, teammate of Mads Pedersen, following him. A duo who very quickly joined up with the leading duo for a Lidl-Trek match against Visma-Lease a Bike. The efforts made over long kilometers by Edoardo Affini and then those intense efforts to return by Mads Pedersen ended up being paid dearly. While the Italian was unable to keep up the pace, the Dane ended up giving in at the edge of the last 20 kilometers of the event. The duo Christophe Laporte-Mathias Vacek was then unable to take more than thirty seconds on their pursuers but the collaboration was good enough to avoid a general regrouping in the streets of Tours. The Frenchman then played the experience card by refusing to take over for the final sprint on Avenue de Grammont.
It was 300 meters from the line that the rider from the Visma-Lease a Bike team started the sprint and he was not seen again. For the first time since last year’s European Championship and after having missed the boat several times this season, Christophe Laporte raised his arms in victory in front of Mathias Vacek when the peloton’s sprint for third place was settled by Jasper Philipsen. The bronze medalist from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games thus concludes his season on a very good note.
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