Image 1 of 48 Laurent Pinchon beats Greg Van Avermaet for fifth (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 2 of 48 The riders get ready for the start of the 2012 Paris-Tours (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 3 of 48 Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) was third in Paris-Tours (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 4 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) (Image credit: AFP) Image 5 of 48 Marcato and Terptra on the Paris-Tours podium (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 6 of 48 Marcato's trophy for winning Paris-Tours (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 7 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) winner of the 2012 Paris-Tours (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 8 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) winner of the 2012 Paris-Tours (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 9 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) winner of the 2012 Paris-Tours (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 10 of 48 Adam Blythe takes the sprint for 15th over Nacer Bouhanni (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 11 of 48 Roy Curvers comes in ahead of Julien Berard (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 12 of 48 Jonathan Hivert and Jens Keukeleire come to the line in 8th and 9th (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 13 of 48 Jonathan Hivert wins the sprint for 8th in Paris-Tours (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 14 of 48 (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 15 of 48 The Paris-Tours podium 2012 (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 16 of 48 The breakaway in Paris-Tours (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 17 of 48 Mortensen leads the peloton (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 18 of 48 Alessandro Ballan going back to the team cars. (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 19 of 48 Karsten Kroon in the day's escape (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 20 of 48 Koldo Fernandez leads the chase (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 21 of 48 The chase is on in the peloton (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 22 of 48 The escape group in Limeray (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 23 of 48 Michael Morkov follos Yannick Talabardon in the breakaway (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 24 of 48 Sylvain Chavanel in the breakaway (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 25 of 48 BMC and Cofidis collaborate in the chase (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 26 of 48 (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 27 of 48 (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 28 of 48 (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 29 of 48 The battle between De Vrees and Marcato in Paris-Tours (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 30 of 48 De Vrees tries to come around Marcato but falls short (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 31 of 48 Marco Marcato beats De Vrees in the sprint, but the Belgian is not happy (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 32 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) winner of the 2012 Paris-Tours (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 33 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) winner of the 2012 Paris-Tours (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 34 of 48 John Degenkolb went after the breakaway himself but had to settle for fourth in Paris-Tours (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 35 of 48 The 2012 Paris-Tours podium: Laurens De Vrees, Marco Marcato and Niki Terpstra (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 36 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) on the Paris-Tours podium (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 37 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) leads the attack (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 38 of 48 Marcato celebrates his big win (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 39 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 40 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) celebrates with his arms in the air (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 41 of 48 The three riders worked well together and stayed away (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 42 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) leads on one of the late climbs (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 43 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 44 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) (Image credit: Bettini Photo) Image 45 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne) Image 46 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) wins the sprint ahead of Laurens De Vreese (Topsport Vlaanderen – Mercator) and Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) (Image credit: AFP) Image 47 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) (Image credit: AFP) Image 48 of 48 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) on the Paris-Tours podium (Image credit: AFP)

Marco Marcato won his first classic at Paris-Tours but didn't dethrone Andreï Tchmil from the record books as the fastest winner ever. Back in 1997, the Moldavian turned Belgian set a record of 48.830km/h but the Italian from Vacansoleil-DCM came close with a score of 48.629. He resisted to a solo counter-attack by race favourite John Degenkolb and outsprinted Topsport Vlaanderen's Laurens de Vreese who accused him of misbehavior. Dutch champion Niki Terpstra of Omega Pharma-Quick Step was the third man of the winning breakaway.

The race started on a high speed with Sylvain Chavanel showing an aggressive spirit. One of the riders who accompanied him was young Australian talent Michael Hepburn from Orica-GreenEdge. "Before the race, our goal was to have someone in the breakaway," the world champion for individual pursuit told Cyclingnews. "It was a pretty big group. Being active and positive was a good way to conduct my last race as I didn't really get going on the road after the Olympics, but I'll come back stronger next year."

Karsten Kroon and Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank), Jérôme Pineau (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Gatis Smukulis (Katusha), Laszlo Bodrogi (TT1), Arnaud Gérard (FDJ-BigMat), Koen De Kort (Argos-Shimano) and Yannick Talabardon (Saur-Sojasun) were the other members of the breakaway. Their gap over the pack grow rapidly. They could enjoy a 4:50 advantage after a very fast first hour of racing (50.6 kilometres covered). Behind, the chase was being organised by teams AG2R-La Mondiale, Vacansoleil-DCM and Garmin-Sharp, failing to have riders in the breakaway and the gap started dropping. "We wouldn't let them have more than four minutes lead," said eventual winner Marcato who co-captained the Vacansoleil-DCM team.

The strongest rider of the breakaway was obviously Michael Mørkøv. He decided to take off on his own with under 40 kilometres to go while all his former breakaway companions were caught up by the chasing pack at km 201. "I tried a way to escape from the bunch as I've done all year," the Dane told Cyclingnews. "It was a good group but some guys were too afraid to pull. They were saving energy. As I felt being the strongest of the group, I went away but I knew it was impossible to make it by myself with 35 kilometres more to race."

A group of seven counter-attackers took over from Mørkøv: Marcato, Terpstra, Roy Curvers (Argos-Shimano), Julien Bérard (AG2R-La Mondiale), De Vreese, Sébastien Turgot (Europcar) and Laurent Pichon (Bretagne-Schuller) managed to pull away in the last hills of the course and caught up with the leader. A second decisive move occurred in the final 10kms when Marcato pulled away, taking with him De Vreese and Terpstra.

While a group of favourites including defending champion Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano), Bjorn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Jakob Fuglsang (RadioShack-Nissan) managed to take off from the pack in the last hill (Cote de l'Epan, km 7), it was looking good for the front three, enjoying a fifteen seconds advantage with five kilometres to go. "Unfortunately, in the absence of radios, I didn't much of information," Marcato explained. "But I saw on the blackboard that there was a group at fifteen seconds and the peloton at 35 seconds. Obviously, had guys like Degenkolb, [Nacer] Bouhanni and [Adam] Blythe come across, it would have meant the end of my hopes."

Degenkolb was close to closing the gap by himself. "I understood this group was going for the victory but there were still three guys at the front," the German told Cyclingnews. "I was following Van Avermaet but since I was the strongest in the group, I tried because I only had one team-mate left with me. But probably I wasn't strong enough. You always have to try. I'm not devastated. It's still a fourth place in a big classic. After the fourth place at the world championship, it's not a bad way to conclude my season."

De Vreese wasn't that happy with the outcome. He and his directeur sportif Hans De Clercq complained to the judges about Marcato's move in the sprint but they got no luck. "Hadn't Marcato done that, I would have won," the Belgian noted. "I was going to pass him and he forced me to stop pedaling. It was my first time in such a situation while he had the experience of having sprinted here one year ago." After losing to Van Avermaet, Marcato had learnt the lesson. "I haven't seen what De Vreese is talking about," Marcato said. "I was only looking at the finishing line. But the street was wide. There was space for everyone. From last year, I mostly learnt how to ride in the kilometers preceding the sprint. One year ago, I had in mind that it was still good to be second. This time around, it was all or nothing. With 3km to go, I became confident that I would win."

The 28 year old Italian from Padova will put an end to his 2012 season at the Tour de Vendée next week, a race he won last year.

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