This year's edition of Paris-Tours has lost its leading favourite Jasper Philipsen after his team confirmed that the Belgian fastman is finally not on the roster for France's top autumn Classic on Sunday.
Alpecin-Deceuninck announced in a social media post that Philipsen, 27, was "not feeling fully fit" and will not, as had been expected, be heading to the start of the 211km race in Chartres on Sunday.
Third in last year's Paris-Tours when he won the sprint behind the breakaway, the best result of his three participations to date, it is as yet unclear if the season is now over for Philipsen, or if he will return to racing in the final raft of autumn events next week.
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Philipsen was unstoppable a week ago in the Sparkassen Münsterland Giro. But after his victory in Germany's last race of the season, he then abandoned in Binche-Chimay-Binche on Tuesday after being dropped mid-race when the field split apart, with the win going to fellow-Belgian sprinter Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
"Jasper was originally scheduled to start [Paris-Tours]," Alpecin-Deceuninck wrote in their social media post. "But will skip the race after not feeling fully fit since Binche. We wish him a speedy recovery."
The Belgian star has had a rollercoaster season, albeit interspersed with notable successes. He won the opening stage of the Tour de France, only to crash out injured whilst leading the points competition two days later, but bounced back in style to take three stages of the Vuelta a España.
Earlier this year, he also won one of Belgium's top opening season Classics, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, only to have a bad crash at Nokere Koerse a few days later, suffering whiplash, which impacted the rest of his spring campaign.
In Philipsen's absence, attention will focus on whether Arnaud De Lie (Lotto), defending champion Christophe Laporte and his Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Matthew Brennan, and the soon-to-retire former winner Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&BHotels) can impact in the 119th edition of Paris-Tours.
Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), second last year, is another key name to watch, as are former winners Matteo Trentin (Tudor) and John Degenkolb (Picnic-PostNL).
The route of the 2025 edition of Paris-Tours will remain unchanged from recent years, with a flat opening sector and then nine short, punchy climbs and nine off-road sectors in the Loire Valley in the finale.
One major change, though, is that the race will no longer finish on the usual long straightaway on Avenue de Grammont in Tours, but has switched to the nearby Boulevard Bérange.
