Cycling: the Dane Casper Pedersen wins Paris-Tours, Cosnefroy second - France 24

Tours (AFP)

The Danish Casper Pedersen (Sunweb) won Paris-Tours on Sunday, beating his breakaway companion the Frenchman Benoît Cosnefroy in the sprint after a very lively 214 km race.

"I dreamed of achieving a result here, I had very good form at the exit of the Tour de France. It's really fabulous", rejoiced to AFP the teammate of Soren Kragh Andersen, winner of the he 2018 edition and the big favorite of the day but which fell around fifty km from the finish.

Cosnefroy said he was "disappointed not to bring back the win for the" AG2R La Mondiale team, while the last French victory in this "race of dead leaves" dates from 2006 with Frédéric Guesdon.

Between hills and vineyards, half earth, half gravel, the Norman runner animated the end of the race by systematically accelerating in the last difficulties, to try to win the Dane, the only one able to follow in the last 30 kilometers .

Casper Pedersen, 24, who had won a stage in the Tour of Denmark, knew "that the first to attack would be well placed" in the famous Avenue de Grammont.

Like Romain Bardet, several riders had left the peloton about fifty kilometers from the finish as they approached small brittle hills and wet and earthy vineyards, giving the riders muddy faces, as in Paris. -Roubaix.

These counter-attackers put an end to a long morning break of six riders by taking over the last two survivors, the Belgian Emiel Vermeulen (Natura4Ever Roubaix Métropole) and the Dutchman Elmar Reinders (Riwal Securitas).

Curbs in the morning and then falls prevented the sprinting teams from getting organized.

A last fall on a path near Vouvray ended the peloton with some thirty kilometers from the finish, taking down Bryan Coquard, who had to change his bike.

Still well placed 30 km from the finish, Nacer Bouhanni was also delayed, and could not join the counterattack group of eight riders including his teammate Warren Barguil, as well as Romain Bardet (AG2R), Valentin Madouas (Groupama), the Dutchman Joris Nieuwenhuis (Sunweb) and the Czech Petr Vakoc (Alpecin Fenix).

© 2020 AFP