Paris – Tours 2009
| Result | ||
|---|---|---|
| winner |
 Philippe Gilbert
|
5:12:23 h |
| Second |
Tom Boonen
|
equal time |
| Third |
 Borut Božič
|
+ 0:02 min |
| Fourth |
 Filippo Pozzato
|
+ 0:16 min |
| fifth |
 Óscar Freire
|
equal time |
| Sixth |
Francesco Gavazzi
|
equal time |
| seventh |
 Tanning Löwik
|
equal time |
| Eighth |
Pablo Lastras
|
equal time |
| Ninth |
 Martin Reimer
|
equal time |
| Tenth |
.svg){kind=small} Jauheni Hutarowitsch
|
equal time |
The Paris – Tours 2009 cycling race was the 103rd edition of the Paris – Tours cycling classic and took place on October 11, 2009. The Belgian Philippe Gilbert , who beat Tom Boonen and Borut Božič in the sprint of a top group of three drivers , won the race for the second time since 2008.
Route
When it was held in 2009, the route was around 20 kilometers shorter than the traditional route. The race started in Chartres and led over 230 kilometers through largely flat terrain to the south to Tours . On the last 10 kilometers, there were three smaller climbs: the Côte de l'Epan , the Côte du Pont Volant and the Côte du Petit Pas d'Ane . The race was decided on avenue de Grammont .
Field of participants
25 teams competed, 15 of them from the UCI ProTour . Among the participating teams were AG2R La Mondiale , Agritubel , Auber 93 , Bbox Bouygues Telecom , Besson Chaussures-Sojasun , BMC Racing , Bretagne-Schuller , Caisse d'Epargne , Cervélo Test Team , Columbia-HTC , Cofidis , Euskaltel-Euskadi , Française des Jeux , Garmin-Slipstream , Katjuscha , Lampre-NGC , Landbouwkrediet-Colnago , Milram , Quick Step , Rabobank , Roubaix Lille Métropole , Saxo Bank , Silence-Lotto , Skil-Shimano and Vacansoleil .
Favorites
Since the route leads over very flat terrain, Paris-Tours is traditionally a classic for sprinters. The top favorites therefore included the two dominant sprinters in the previous races, Tyler Farrar and André Greipel , who by then had already recorded 20 victories of the season.
Should there be a mass sprint , Juan José Haedo , Aljaksandr Ussau , Greg Van Avermaet , Tom Boonen , Allan Davis , Angelo Furlan , Danilo Napolitano , Filippo Pozzato , Borut Božič , Roger Hammond , Óscar Freire , Jimmy Casper , Romain Feillu could also do it and Gerald Ciolek .
Last year's winners Philippe Gilbert , Thomas Voeckler , Frédéric Guesdon , Nick Nuyens , Alessandro Ballan , Juan Antonio Flecha , Sylvain Chavanel , Martin Reimer and Johnny Hoogerland had the best chances of winning a breakaway .
Race course
About 25 kilometers after the start, a top ten group formed with drivers Martin Elmiger , Cédric Pineau , Matthieu Ladagnous , Damien Gaudin , Jean-Luc Delpech , Jonathan Thiré , Mathew Hayman , Aart Vierhouten , Tom Veelers and László Bodrogi . The group achieved a maximum advantage of 7:15 minutes up to 132 kilometers from the finish. Then the sprinter teams, especially Quick Step and Silence-Lotto, began to increase the pace significantly and reduced the gap to 52 seconds up to 30 kilometers from the finish. A little later the outliers were found. Only Tom Veelers managed to escape the field for a few more kilometers. After several unsuccessful attacks by several riders, Greg Van Avermaet attacked on the climb to the Côte de l'Epan 8 kilometers from the finish and only his team-mate Philippe Gilbert, Tom Boonen and Borut Božič were able to follow him. The group succeeded in tearing a bigger hole in the field, mainly thanks to the speed work of Greg Van Avermaet, and shortly afterwards they caught up with Tom Veelers who had been leading up to that point. 5 kilometers from the finish, Van Avermaet finally had to tear down after the pace work for his captain. Meanwhile, Filippo Pozzato pulled away from the field, but failed with his attempt to reach the top group.
About 300 meters from the finish, Philippe Gilbert opened the final sprint. Borut Božič and Tom Boonen clung to Gilbert's rear wheel. Since the exhausted Božič could no longer keep up with Gilbert and broke off his sprint, there was now a small gap between Gilbert and Boonen, who reacted too late. Although he still got close to Gilbert, he could no longer get past him. Philippe Gibert crossed the finish line first and was able to defend his title. A few seconds later, Filippo Pozzato saved himself from the approaching, but now greatly reduced, main field in fourth across the finish line.