This is the last major race in France, a .Pro race longer than 210 km (which, like any race whose name starts with Paris, doesn't start from Paris, but in this case from Chartres), with a first part (2/3^rd^) going through flat countryside and forests, and a last 3^rd^ that climbs up and down the Loire valley sides and takes a few gravel/stone paths across the vineyards.
Video summary of last year's (muddy) race and the Lidl-Trek vs Visma fights, mostly in French
The race should be dry this year (not a raindrop in days). So the paths should look like in 2023: 
The final has been modified a bit this year. The long final avenue looked nice with its tree cover, I don't know about the new finish line, but it shortens a bit the distance of pure flat before the line (there is still a bit more than 10 km of flat roads after the little climbs and the paths).
Unfortunately, Paris–Tours suffers from the occurrence on the same week-end of Il Lombardia and this weird Gravel World Championship without gravel. The first of those is for climbers, so there shouldn't be real competition for riders, but I see that Alaphilippe (Tudor) and Grégoire (FDJ) are announced in Lombardia on Saturday, whereas Paris–Tours would suit them much better. And Pidcock is supposed to go to the 'gravel' race on Sunday.
By the way, it will be Arnaud Démare's last professional race.
He may, he may. Without even accounting for punctures and crashes, the race looks very open: there isn't someone or a few riders above the others, but many guys who can be strong. It is like there is no clear favourite(s), but only (numerous) outsiders:
BTW, Gaudu's return to competition was short-lived. He wasn't put on the list for the Tour of Emilia but on the smaller Italian race next day, where he withdrew or was stopped before the end; his presence on a later small Italian race was cancelled; and he isn't listed on any race any more. The guy has ridden 2 or 3 good days in February in Oman, then 2 or 3 good days in August in Spain, and the rest was awful; that's a peculiar season.
PS: I probably won't watch Lombardia, and won't open a thread, so if you feel like opening one, be ~~my~~ your guest 😉
Baffling tactics from Lapeira and Gruel in the final km.
But a fine victory by Trentin, and a fine ride and result by Albert Philipsen.
One thing I would like to add, because I read many people putting 90% of the blame (or more) on Lapeira because they say he was the better sprinter.
Lapeira indeed scored a number of victories, while Gruel only got 1 on the Route d'Occitanie. But:
So, of course Gruel is not a top sprinter, but, given an equal level of freshness, he has his chances and probably more than his chances against a non-sprinter (or puncher-sprinter with a strong emphasis on puncher) like Lapeira.
I agree, it looked a little stupid but sometimes you have to risk losing everything to win. This time the gamble didn't pay off, but maybe next time it will.
A long national tradition of being dipsticks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2C3kn051AI
PS: Those were the same two teams (FDJ & AG2R), now that I think of it!
Not sure what happened to Vatchek in a little narrow climb, but it killed his legs for the rest of the race: he could come back but suffered from it ever after.
Godon won the sprint of the small 'peloton' of 17 riders for 8^th^ place. Lapeira was the Stan Laurel of the comical duo ahead.
The breakaway was caught early this year, by the peloton and not by a later breakaway, so this didn't work out for the Roubaix guy who was indeed in the breakaway of 5 riders.
Madouas blew up while he was catching up with Lapeira and his own teammate Gruel. He was like 4 metres behind and yet couldn't finish the job.
I didn't see Küng at all. Gruel was the FDJ of the day, the Oliver Hardy of the comical duo ahead. Jacobs was in the early breakaway, yet he managed to finish in the small 'peloton'.
I think (I am not sure, confusing him & Vatchek) he followed a few attacks, but couldn't follow the right ones. He still finishes in the small 'peloton' (but couldn't sprint).
2 men in the small 'peloton', which they tried to pull, chasing the groups of 2 and 5 ahead.
Brennan had no legs; Campenaerts wasn't much better; Kooij had a puncture, but wasn't great before that, and it was Campenaerts who was waiting to bring him back: suffice to say it really didn't work. Only Laporte did very well, but he had to do it by himself, as the other strong guys from his team had turned out to be not so strong.
He didn't start the race.
I think he fucked his legs by keeping on riding with a puncture. The goal was to wait for his car to come and have a quick bike exchange, instead of stopping for a longer wheel change. But he forced for too long with the puncture.
He finished inside the small 'peloton'.
Do I remember correctly if I say their guys were seen at the front when the climbs and paths started? Anyway, after a while, they were nowhere to be seen any more, that is sure.
They were very discreet today. Not in the early breakaway and, I reckon, never seen attacking?
EEkhoff (Picnic), H. Page (Intermarché), Dujardin (Total) and Breuillard (St-Michel, a Conti team!) finished inside the small 'peloton'.
Another terrible race for Cofidis: only 2 finishers, none within UCI points (which are attributed until the 40^th^ rider...).
Q36.5's first rider came 77^th^...
Ah, and there is one team about which I forgot both before and after the race.
The winner's team, Trentin's team, Tudor. 😆 I absolutely didn't expect Trentin to still be able to do such a performance, and then I was obsessed with the two French clowns in the finish.