André Greipel (Columbia-HTC) booked his 20th win of the season today, taking the 59th edition of Paris-Bourges. The German was the fastest in the sprint leaving Argentinean Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank) and Russian Alexandre Usov (Cofidis) behind in the sprint after 193 kilometers of racing.
A break of 19 riders distanced themselves from the peloton including favorites Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil), Anthony Geslin (Française des Jeux), William Bonnet (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) and Cédric Pineau (AG2R-La Mondiale). The breakaway reached a maximum advantage of 2:50 before the peloton rallied several teams to decrease the gap.
The break reshuffled several times, creating a select group of six riders including Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse d’Epargne), Nadir Haddou (Auber 93), Jean-Marc Marino (Besson-Sojasun) along with Geslin, Pineau, and Hoogerland. This sextet held an advantage of 27 seconds with 41 kilometers of racing left, but their margin melted away as Team Columbia applied the pressure.
A blistering finale saw several attacks but nothing escape Columbia’s express train until Frédéric Guesdon (FDJ), Lars Ytting Bak (Saxo Bank), Julien Simon (Besson-Sojasun) and Stéphane Bonsergent (Bretagne-Schuller) broke free with eight kilometers to go.
Again it was Columbia who shutdown the move with three kilometers to spare delivering Greipel with yet another victory.