Kragh Andersen's Tours de force
Paris-Tours hasn’t always been Paris-Tours. Before 1950, it was held at the end of spring. In 1965, riders were banned from using derailleurs and would have to get off their bike to change gear manually. In 1974 and for more than a decade after, it was reversed and was called, among other things, Tours-Versailles and Blois-Chaville. Between 1985 and 1987 it was Créteil-Chaville - so a race between two south-Paris suburbs. In 1988, the race took up its old direction and name and finished on the Avenue de Grammont in Tours, and its general character has remained. Until this year. For 2018, ASO inserted seven climbs and nine sectors of chemin de vignes – rough gravel tracks - through the Touraine vineyards. What it was, then, was akin to a Classics race; and invariably, the toughest Classics riders came to the fore. Rather than escape and evade, this was gladiatorial combat.
The most interesting section came between 40km and 25km to go. At 40km, over the Cote de Goguenne, which transitioned immediately into the longest chemin de vignes section, Niki Terpstra and Søren Kragh Andersen forced a small selection that read like a who’s-who of Flanders: Philippe Gilbert, Sep Vanmarcke, Jelle Wallays... But that break was annulled. Yet Kragh Andersen attacked again, which provoked the other strongest rider in the race, Terpstra, to bridge over. The numbers didn’t look promising. It was two against a large group of pursuers. But more punctures behind chilled the chase.
After a 3km chase, Benoit Cosnefroy succeeded to make it three up front. To the severe annoyance of Terpstra, Cosnefroy sat like a brick on the back for 15km. At 10km to go, Andersen attacked and the reaction between the other two was telling. Cosnefroy looked urgently at Terpstra, willing him to react. Terpstra didn’t even bother to look back and the Dane disappeared for a solo win. The podium might have looked in line with those from years past – but the working was different. It was Paris-Tours, the Frankenstein version.