'It can happen' - Trentin pounces on mind games blunder to seal historic Paris-Tours win

Matteo Trentin rolled back the years to win Paris-Tours for the third time in his career. The veteran Italian looked to be in a battle for the third step of the podium as part of a select chase group behind French duo Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Thibaud Gruel (Groupama-FDJ), who had attacked clear with around 40 km remaining.

However, after the French duo began playing games inside the closing kilometres, their advantage dissipated, allowing Trentin the opportunity to become the oldest winner in the race’s 119-year history and join an elite group of five riders who have all won Paris-Tours three times.

Trentin was part of a four-rider chase group including defending champion Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike), Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl-Trek), pursuing the leading duo of Gruel and Lapeira, who had established a strong gap after attacking with around 40 km remaining.

What seemed like a certain victory for one of the front duo evaporated when they began to look at each other, slowing to almost a track stand, allowing the chasers to sweep them up before the sprint to the line in Tours.

When asked if he thought victory was impossible when trailing by 15 seconds with a kilometre to go, Trentin admitted that he was still confident there could be a chance to fight for the win and not just for third.

“No, in the last two or three kilometres, it can be that one of the two says, ‘I’m f*cked, I prefer to be second than nothing.’ It didn’t happen, but both me and Laporte have a lot of experience, so we really kept pushing. And Philipsen, of course, he sits on the back, he’s the young guy coming up, so he kind of can do that,” Trentin explained to Cyclingpronet. “But on the last corner, they were really standing still, so that came in our favour.”

The Italian veteran used his experience to time his sprint perfectly, crossing the line ahead of Laporte and Philipsen, while Lapeira and Gruel had to settle for fourth and fifth respectively, paying the price for their hesitation.

Trentin wasn’t surprised by the leaders’ tactical mistakes, adding: “No, it can happen. We have already seen so many races where maybe neither of the two are sure to win, and it comes to a moment where they just gamble. Actually, Lapeira also had Bissegger behind, which was better for me.”

Having previously won twice on the old Paris-Tours course, Trentin joked about finally finding the winning recipe for the new route, which has been used since 2018 and features gravel sections that often define the race’s outcome. “Yeah, now I found it,” he joked.