In the last race in line of the season in France, a group of 4 riders quickly got away from the peloton but in the end Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM Cycling) was the only one who managed to stay ahead. Unable to resist to a peloton which wanted the race to end in a sprint, the rider of the Swiss team was finally taken back as well. Several new attempts failed, except for the one by Jetse Bol (Belkin) who was still alone ahead when he arrived on the Avenue de Grammont in Tours but the Dutch rider couldn't resist to the peloton either and finally John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) won Paris-Tours 2013 in a sprint!

The summary of Paris-Tours 2013

Under quite cold temperatures, 191 riders came to sign the start list in Authon-du-Perche, before taking the start of the 107th edition of Paris-Tours over 235 kilometres.

The first attempt came from ten riders but this turned out not to be the right breakaway and the group was thus taken back by the peloton. Yannick Martinez (La Pomme Marseille), already present in the first breakaway, managed to get in a group of 4 riders just afterwards, where he was accompanied by Sebastian Lander (BMC Racing Team), Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM Cycling) and Julien Duval (Roubaix-Lille Métropole). Their gap went up above 10 minutes but after the feeding zone the peloton started to take back some time on the leading riders, mainly thanks to the work of the FDJ.fr team, and at about sixty kilometres from the finish they only have 4 minutes left to take back on the leading group.

When the 4 leading riders start the climb of the Côte de Crochu, the first one out of 3 climbs which make up the final of Paris-Tours, their gap on the peloton is down to only 1'22". Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) tries to get away from the peloton there but his attempt was unsuccessful. It did however allow to create a selection in the peloton which saw numerous riders in difficulty to keep up with the speed.

Numerous other attacks at the front of the peloton also remained without success, which an accelleration by Julien Duval in the leading group made Sebastian Lander drop from this group. Aleksejs Saramotins takes up the good example and continues alone leading the race at about twenty kilometres from the finish while a chasing group tries to get back on the leading rider. The peloton however continues its effort to take back the Latvian rider and at the foot of the Côte de Beau Soleil his adventure comes to an end. An attack from Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) is followed by Sep Vanmarcke (Belkin) and John Degenkolb (Team Argos-Shimano) and in the descent this leading trio is joined by Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Michael Morkov (Team Saxo-Tinkoff), Jetse Bol (Belkin) and Arnaud Démare who start the last climb, the Côte de l'Epan, together.
Once Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) joined this group, Jetse Bol decided to attack and the Dutch rider took a few seconds on his chasers. He was still a few seconds ahead when he arrived in the Avenue de Grammont in Tours but this wasn't enough to resist alone to the peloton. In the 700 last metres the Dutch rider was thus taken back and the race ended in a bunch sprint, in which John Degenkolb turned out to be the fastest, finishing more than one bikelength ahead of Michael Morkov (Team Saxo-Tinkoff). This was thus the first time since 3 years that Paris-Tours ended in a bunch sprint, thus moving up to 5 out of 17 last editions the number of times the race ended in a sprint!

The result of Paris-Tours 2013

Here's the top 10 of Paris-Tours 2013:

1/ John Degenkolb (Team Argos-Shimano) - 5h29'19"
2/ Michael Morkov (Team Saxo-Tinkoff)
3/ Arnaud Démare (FDJ.fr)
4/ Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp)
5/ Michael van Staeyen (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise)
6/ Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling)
7/ Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale)
8/ Jon Aberasturi Izaga (Euskaltel-Euskadi)
9/ Ioannis Tamouridis (Euskaltel-Euskadi)
10/ Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)

The photos of Paris-Tours 2013

A selection of 104 photos of Paris-Tours 2013 is now available in the corresponding photo section:

>> Watch the photos of Paris-Tours 2013

Post by Paris - Tours.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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