Today, Team Saxo-Tinkoff made their final appearance in Europe for the season during the 235 kilometre Paris-Tours as Danish national champion Michael Mørkøv delivered a memorable performance to finish as runner-up.

A quartet of riders formed the long-lasting breakaway of the race including Sebastian Lander (BMC), Julien Duval (Roubaix Lille Metropole), Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM Cycling) and Yannick Martinez (La Pomme-Marseille). The four riders managed to build up a gap of ten minutes but from then on, the peloton steadily diminished the lead.

But the race was neutralized with 10 kilometres remaining when Saxo-Tinkoff's Danish national champion, Michael Mørkøv, broke clear with among others John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) but they were swept up again.

On the finish line, they both had enough energy to take part in the bunch sprint and Michael Mørkøv was only beaten by John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) in the dash for the line.

"After Thursday's minor disappointment, the team was up running at the highest level today. The boys remained loyal to the tactics and Michael did an impressive finale that more than confirms that he can be counted among the sprinters in the bunch sprints in the future. He joined the attack without going too deep so he had the energy to do an amazingly powerful sprint on the finish line where only Degenkolb surpassed him. And that is no shame, "said sports director Dan Frost.

And of course, Michael Mørkøv was a happy man after the fine result:

"I felt really well today and naturally I'm very happy to finish in second place behind Degenkolb. It is the culmination of the last few weeks of preparation with the team and there is no doubt that I would never have been able to do this kind of finale without the team's hard work throughout the entire race. Although it's my name standing in the results, it's been a true team effort. I'm getting better at in the big sprints but I do not consider myself as a sprinter. Jonas (Aaen) put me in a perfect position in the run-in and without the support from the boys, I wouldn't have finished up here, "said a delighted Michael Mørkøv.