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RACE REPORTS: "PERFECT" GILBERT BRILLIANT WINNER IN 102ND PARIS-TOURS
Road Bike Action & AFP
October 12, 2008
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On a beautiful fall day, Belgian one-day specialist Philippe Gilbert gave his Francaise des Jeux team the ideal farewell gift by winning the 252km Paris-Tours one-day classic on Sunday. Gilbert's first win in the 102nd edition of the race comes just weeks before he departs the French outfit by moving to Silence-Lotto. The 26 year old Belgian bridged up to an escape group with six kilometres to go, comprised of Sébastien Turgot (Bouygues), Nicolas Vogondy (Agritubel), Mickaël Delage (Française des Jeux) and Jan Kuyckx (Landbouwkrediet).
Delage, who will follow Gilbert to Silence next season, led out the sprint for his Francaise des Jeux teammate, who won ahead of Kuckx and Turgot and Vogondy. American Tyler Farrar (Garmin Chipotle-H30) took the bunch sprint 4 seconds behind, in front of Robbie McEwen (Silence-Lotto) and Erik Zabel (Team Milram), for whom it was his farewell race before retirement. It was Gilbert's 5th win of the season as the lanky Belgian speedster started the season with wins in Majorca Trophy, Het Volk and Paris-Nice.
How It Happened
On a beautiful, sunny fall Sunday, the 102nd edition of Paris-Tours started at 1110 in Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines with 180 riders from 23 teams, but without Columbia's German sprinter Gerald Ciolek who was sick and did not start. The early stages of the race was enlivened by a four-man group which broke away after just seven kilometres, including Lucas Euser (TSL), Sébastien Delfosse (LAN), Cyril Lemoine (Crédit Agricole) and Tom Veelers (SKS) and then Euser's teammate David Zabriskie bridged across to make it 5 away.
The break's maximum lead was 11" after 67km, but the strong chase behind eventually doomed the break. Frenchman Cyril Lemoine was the last man caught, as he was reeled in by a 10-man chase group with 25 km from the finish. With 15km to race, an attack by Turgot lured French champion Vogondy, Delage then Kuyckx away in the final stages.
On the final ascent of the day, the steep 1km climb of the Petit Pas d'Âne with 8km to go, Italian Filippo Pozzato made his move, but a brilliant Gilbert countered him and then closed the gap to the leaders for the win. Francaise des Jeux team boss Marc Madiot was very happy with the win, saying "it was great work by our team today; in the finale, we did exactly what we planned. We had a classic win at the beginning of the season (Het Volk) with Gilbert and another today at the end of the season. That's just perfect!"
102nd Paris-Tours / Sunday, October 12, 2008
1. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux 5h47'45"
2. Jan Kuyckx (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner
3. Sébastien Turgot (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
4. Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Agritubel
5. Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin Chipotle-H30 @ 4"
6. Robbie McEwen (Aus) Silence-Lotto
7. Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
8. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas
9. Kristof Goddaert (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
10. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step
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