Freire bookends season with Paris-Tours win

Oscar Freire has become the first Spaniard to win Paris-Tours in his 11th participation in the French classic. Freire launched a perfectly timed sprint to win handily over Angelo Furlan and Gert Steegmans, a slim consolation prize from the missed opportunity at the world championships.

In doing so, the Spaniard clocked the second fastest average speed for the race, with 47.730km/h. Andreï Tchmil remains the record holder with 48.929km/h in 1999. Freire will remain the last winner on the Avenue de Grammont. The planned tramway will relocate the finish before next year's race, making this edition the last to use the classic finish line.

"I've had more luck today than at the world championship," Freire said. "My condition was ok after the trip to Australia. We have controlled the race and I stayed at the front. It was a perfect race for me."

Experts usually say that the greatness of Paris-Tours is the events that precede the final sprint. It was a fast start until Jonas Jorgensen (Saxo Bank), Travis Meyer (Garmin-Transitions), Yuriy Krivtsov (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Simon Geschke (Skil-Shimano) broke clear at kilometre 37. They were soon rejoined by Nikolas Maes (Quick Step), Aleksej Saramotins (HTC-Columbia), Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky) and Laurent Pichon (Bretagne-Schuller). The eight men only managed to get a maximum lead of four minutes at km 70, but the peloton kept them under control.

At the halfway mark in Vendôme, the Saur-Sojasun team accelerated and created splits in the bunch with Italy's Daniele Bennati and Filippo Pozzato among the top names trapped at the back. But the peloton was back together eventually and the breakaway riders could see their advantage increasing again up to 2.45 at km 145. RadioShack, Rabobank and Omega Pharma-Lotto became the most active at the command of the bunch and reduced the gap progressively.

On the côte du Crochu (km 203.5), Geschke put the hammer down and split the front group, and only Maes could bridge the gap. With 20 kilometres to go, the peloton caught everyone except Geschke and Maes who lasted five more kilometres in the front. On the côte de Beau-Soleil, newly introduced on the course of Paris-Tours, RadioShack's Geoffrey Lequatre attacked and kept an 18 second lead at the entrance of the 2.7km long avenue de Grammont.

"I took risks before everyone else," Lequatre told Cyclingnews after the finish. "Everything was possible. I heard from Alain Gallopin over the radio that I had 25 or 29 seconds advantage. It was a game between me and the bunch. I never looked back, but the headwind on the Avenue de Grammont made it too hard for a man alone."

Once Lequatre got caught with 400 metres to go, the headwind continued to play a major role. "Bozic led me well, but with 300 metres to go, I got the headwind right into my face," explained the first Frenchman Romain Feillu (6th). "At 200 metres, I took Furlan's wheel but I couldn't hold it. The efforts I did previously penalised me although I had kept strength for the sprint."

Lampre's Furlan thought he had a good chance of winning. "I believed I'd win, I dreamt of it and I needed it," the Italian told Cyclingnews. "If there wasn't this head wind, I would have won because I came out of the Vuelta with good form. I chose to open the sprint with 300 metres to go because you need to take risks to win. It's no shame to lose to a champion like Oscar Freire, but I'm a bit disappointed to have been so close to the win and not make it."

Freire was unbeatable in the last 50 metres. "He was really impressive," said last year's winner Philippe Gilbert. "He was almost stopped and found a great speed in only 100 metres."

"It was a very fast race because of the favourable wind," the Belgian added. "But the new finale was a disadvantage for the attackers. I tried in the côte de l'Epan but I stopped my effort when I had Pozzato on my wheel. It seems to be his speciality to make other riders lose. Two years ago, he rode against Boonen, now apparently I am his new target. It's his way of riding. As for myself, I didn't want to take risks in the sprint so I rode for Greg van Avermaet who told me he was up for it but he got boxed in."

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