Christophe Laporte wins muddy Paris-Tours ahead of Mathias Vacek

Christophe Laporte is a top rider but somehow rarely gets big victories. This Sunday this was not the case as Team Visma | Lease a Bike put in the perfect tactics and saw the Frenchman take the victory in a two-up sprint against Mathias Vacek.

The French classic was raced under rain and this made the race even harder. European time-trial champion Edoardo Affini formed the day's breakaway together with Mikel Retegi and Enzo Boulet. When the race entered it's hilly section with gravel roads, the Visma rider soon found himself alone but the race was already exploding behind.

Mads Pedersen specially, in familiar fashion, began attacking hard from very early on and joined the front group. He and Affini would ride on for several kilometers but there was still some organization behind. The gap was not too big and so it was possible for Christophe Laporte to close it down with 29 kilometers to go, bringing Pedersen's teammate Mathias Vacek along.

Affini put in a strong stint to increase the gap over the peloton, and then Laporte's pace was too much for a fatigued Pedersen that had burned his matches with the attack. Laporte and Vacek then rode together into the final kilometers, chased by a peloton that saw plenty attacks, but then ultimately a relatively well organized chase into the final kilometers.

Vacek spent too much time in the front in the final two kilometers however and Laporte took advantage of his experience, launching his sprint at the perfect time and taking the victory over the Lidl-Trek rider. Jasper Philipsen surged to take third place from the peloton.