Paris-Tours LIVE – Podium Cafe

Cat 4 races are coming on a daily basis now. Starting with Sparky Munchausen race on Thursday through Lombardy a week from yesterday, we are seeing more FSA-DS points up for grabs in the whole season. We are seeing

1. One cat 6 stage race-Laggkawi 465 points which ends today
2. One cat 5 stage race- CRO race 1085 points which ends today
3. SIX cat four races- Sparkassen Münsterland Giro, Giro dell’Emilia, Paris-Tours, Coppa Bernocchi- GP BPM, Tre Valli Varesine, Gran Piemonte worth collectively 9,510 points
4. One cat 6 African Championships ITT worth 265
5. One cat 5 Coppa Agostoni- today- worth 665 points
6. One cat 2 Monument – Lombardy- worth 2605 points

Total- 14,595 points to be allocated by next Saturday.

But on to Paris-Tours

Maybe the dirt sections will be a tad wet? That would be interesting. Supposedly the wind will be a headwind for much of the day, something that hasn’t happened for a few years. But otherewise we are lookinhg at either a big bunch sprint at the end of the day or a couple of clever riders will escapte near the end.

Who might beat the sprinters is anyones guess. We do have defending champ Riley Sheehan back. So are Madouas, SKA, Vacek, Morgado…

We know who the sprinters will be:

Jasper Phillipsen, Mads Pedersen, Arnaud De Lie, Pascal Ackermann, Paul Penhoet, Christophe Laporte, Arnaud Demare, Matteo Trentin…all of whom could escape and avoid the bunch sprint

Really this race is wide open.

Also lets pour a couple out for EBH and Michael Morkov, in what probably will be their last races before retirement.

The Jens’ curse pick of the day: Tom Van Asbroeck