The Tinkoff-Saxo riders were very active during today’s 190 kilometer long French one-day race, Paris-Bourges. Roman Kreuziger was hanging in there in a late breakaway but was caught with 5 kilometers to go. In the bunch sprint, Matti Breschel was 9th to cross the finish line.

The early breakaway of today’s race had a gap of five minutes with 115 kilometers to go and Tinkoff-Saxo decided to invest a few riders in the chase. When the front group was reeled back in, Evgeny Petrov, Matti Breschel and Roman Kreuziger took part of new attack from the bunch and on a climb 35 kilometers to go, only 12 riders, including Kreuziger, were left in the breakaway.

The group worked hard to maintain the distance and they threatened to take race glory. With 11 kilometers remaining, Jasper Stuyven (Trek) took off from the front group and worked up a lead to his former companions. But with the sprinter teams first in line, the peloton was in control of things and 5 kilometers to go, they were all brought back.

In the furious sprint for the line, John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) was the fastest and he took his second consecutive win of the race while Tinkoff-Saxo’s Matti Breschel finished 9th.

“We knew it was going to be a hard race because of the different interests from breakaway opportunists and sprinters but I reckon we gave it a good go with several cards to play in the finale like Roman in the late break. In the meantime, Matti dropped back to the peloton to prepare for an eventual bunch sprint and with Degenkolb in the bunch, the bunch gallop was more than just likely. Even though we didn’t win, I’m happy with the team effort and I’m confident that we’re ready for this weekend’s final race on the European calendar, Paris-Tours,” DS, Tristan Hoffman says.