Freire fires in France

Óscar Freire timed his late kick to perfection to win a pulsating 104th edition of Paris-Tours.

Lequatre narrowly denied solo win

Rabobank's Óscar Freire timed his late kick to perfection to win a pulsating 104th edition of Paris-Tours. The three-time world champion appeared to have been boxed in as the peloton surged along the Avenue de Grammont but steered himself into contention excellently and passed Angelo Furlan just before the line to seal his hard-fought victory. Favourable conditions in northern France ensured the pace had been lightning fast from beginning to end, although eight riders did manage to wrestle themselves from the bunch after 37km of action. Team Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha was among them and stayed out ahead with Simon Geschke (Skil-Shimano), Nikolas Maes (Quick-Step) and Aleksejs Saramotins (HTC-Columbia) after the lead group had split in two on the Côte de Crochu. That quartet were eventually joined by Geoffroy Lequatre and three further riders, but with 11km to go the RadioShack man produced an explosive solo attack which left his rivals for dead. Lequatre battled on bravely as the others were quickly swept up behind, but his bid for glory came to an agonising end less then 500m from the line as the sprinters readied themselves for action. It was Furlan who jumped first but Freire was more than a match for the Lampre rider and wrapped up the 68th victory of his career by less than half a bike length. After the race he told reporters: "I've always thought this race is perfect for me but it just never happened before today. "I'd been right there in bunch sprints twice before, so I guess it's third time lucky for me. "The conditions were okay and I made sure I stayed near the front at the end there just in case there were any attacks. I'm really happy to have won the race."