'It's the last day of racing so you just give it your all' - Per Strand Hagenes closes out the year with solo win in Paris-Tours

Per Strand Hagenes (Visma-Lease a Bike) went on a late solo attack to fly to victory in the 120th edition of Paris-Tours, jumping just before the flamme rouge and holding off a charging reduced group to claim the victory in the historic Classic.

Jasper Stuyven (Soudal-QuickStep) was desperately trying chase down Strand Hagenes in the final straight, but had to settle for second on the line, with Visma going 1-3 as Christophe Laporte sprinted to the final spot on the podium.

A strong 12-rider breakaway had been away for much of the 216km race, with a select group of five establishing themselves over the gravel sectors, but they were reeled back in with 21km to go as the finale kicked into action.

The final 20km saw multiple attacks and multiple riders and groups get away, with a group of 11 coming into a cagey final 3km.

It was an acceleration from Toms Skujiņš (Lidl-Trek) that was actually the catalyst of Strand Hagenes' move, with the Norwegian launching off his wheel and powering through the final kilometre for victory.

"During the day I didn't feel the best, but I just kept on fighting," the 23-year-old said at the finish. "I knew [that] quite often after the climbs it got a little bit back together, and I knew a lot of the guys were watching Christophe, so I could benefit a little bit from that. I tried to find the good moment, and then when I had the gap it was all-in to the line.

"We messed up a little bit in the beginning, with not being in that big morning break, but the guys went all-out to try to make it so that we could still race for the win. I really appreciate that work, they were giving it their all out there so me and Christophe could fight for it. I think this is a big team performance today."

This is the second time Strand Hagenes has tasted victory in Tours, having won the under-23 edition of this race in 2022. This Sunday's espoirs edition was won by newly-crowned European champion Hector Alvárez (Lidl-Trek Future Racing).

"I like the race," Strand Hagenes said. "I'm always suffering a little bit in October, but it's a nice race to finish off the season. It's the last day of racing so you just give it your all. It's an interesting race where anything can happen, and you also need some luck to not have a puncture, and today I had that."

How it unfolded

The 120th edition of Paris-Tours rolled out of Chartres for 216km of racing across the French countryside, with 10 off-road farmyard sectors littering the final third of racing to make one of the toughest semi-Classics of the year.

Despite the flat start to the race, it didn't take long for a group to get away, and a fair large one at that, with 12 riders going up the road after less than 10km. The group included the likes of Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek), Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Yves Lampaert (Soudal-QuickStep), but the peloton were clearly not entirely happy with a group of that size and strength going away, and they were initially kept on a tight leash, gaining just 25 seconds after 20km out front.

After some will-they-won't-they, however, the break was finally given a little more leeway, and pulled out a gap of two minutes, eventually growing to three as the situation held steady for the first 120km of racing. In such a long race, many riders and teams were saving as much as possible for the pointy end of the course with the off-road sectors and punchy climbs.

Martijn Rasenberg (Unibet Rose Rockets) was the first rider to drop out of the lead group after an untimely puncture, and he was absorbed by the peloton to make it 11 riders in the lead.

With 80km to go, the peloton were standing to ramp up their pace, with Visma-Lease a Bike and Netcompany Ineos on the front, bringing the gap down to two minutes. With 76km to go, a handful of riders came down in a crash in the middle of the bunch, including Aimé De Gendt (Pinarello-Q36.5) and Rayan Boulahoite (TotalEnergies) who stayed down the longest whilst the other riders got going again.

The first chemin de vigne sector passed without major incident, but the second saw Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) puncture and take a quick bike change, but even though it was a speedy swap, he still had to chase back on.

The gap dropped below a minute for the first time with 50km to go, shortly before a mass crash hit the peloton – on a tarmac stretch – with multiple riders veering off onto the grass verge. Plenty of big names and potential contenders were involved, including Dorian Godon (Netcompany Ineos) and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Intermarché), and several of the worst-affected riders stayed down, not able to continue.

The bunch had been going at full pelt at the time of the crash, though, so rather than slow up as they hit the next sector, they had no choice but to push on and the gap to the leaders kept falling.

Up front, unaffected by the crash, a group of five forged on from the break to go clear of the rest of the group, but the bunch were hot on their heels at this point as the carnage of the sectors had riders spread across the road.

The acceleration in the bunch saw the remainder of the break caught and the gap down to 25 seconds, but a resettling on the next long tarmac stretch saw the gap go out again and the five leaders had a gap of a minute with 40km to go. The five leaders were Lampaert, Bissegger, Matis Louvel (NSN), Storm Ingebrigtsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Julius van den Berg (Picnic PostNL).

With such strength in the lead group, they were working well to try and survive as long as possible, dropping Ingebrigtsen in the process, but the peloton was pushing equally hard to bring them back, with Lewis Askey (NSN) particularly active as the gap fell below 20 seconds with 25km to go. There had been a big split in the peloton, leaving fewer than 30 riders in the main chase, but things regrouped slightly with some dropped riders coming back.

However, this didn't last long as the next big push saw Pierre Gautherat (Decathlon CMA CGM) attack on a climb to not only reel the four leaders back in with 21km, but go clear himself onto the penultimate gravel sector. The counter-attacks were rolling behind Gautherat, who was dangling about 10 seconds ahead of the bunch, but it took a while for anyone to definitely catch him – that came with 14km to go when Per Stand Hagenes (Visma-Lease a Bike) dragged himself and Gautherat's teammate Rasmus Pedersen up to the leader.

The rest of the peloton rejoined the front of the race shortly after, with a big regrouping on the final gravel sector, 11km from the finish line in Tours. The attacks certainly didn't stop there, though, with various moves coming and going before a reduced group of 11 finally formed in the lead with 5km to go.

It was a cagey finale, with riders gambling between long-range attack attempts but also trying to save something for a possible sprint. Four riders – Strand Hagens, Skujiņš, Stuyven and Florian Senechal (Alpecin-Premier Tech) – broke off the front, rolling constant attacks, and it was a final big acceleration from Skujiņš with 1.3km to go that Strand Hagenes launched off of to go solo towards the line.

Stuyven was the quickest to react, finding himself in a desperate late chase between the leader and the chasers, but he couldn't quite reel the Visma in, and just about held off the pursuing group to grab second as Laporte sprinted to third.

Paris-Tours marks the last major one-day race of the season, with Visma-Lease a Bike claiming their 51st victory of 2026.

Results

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