This is the last major race in France, a .Pro race longer than 210 km (which, like any race whose name starts with Paris, doesn’t start from Paris, but in this case from Chartres), with a first part (2/3^rd) going through flat countryside and forests, and a last 3^rd that climbs up and down the Loire valley sides and takes a few gravel/stone paths across the vineyards.

Video teaser (2 mn)

Video summary of last year’s (muddy) race and the Lidl-Trek vs Visma fights, mostly in French

The race should be dry this year (not a raindrop in days). So the paths should look like in 2023:

The final has been modified a bit this year. The long final avenue looked nice with its tree cover, I don’t know about the new finish line, but it shortens a bit the distance of pure flat before the line (there is still a bit more than 10 km of flat roads after the little climbs and the paths).

Unfortunately, Paris–Tours suffers from the occurrence on the same week-end of Il Lombardia and this weird Gravel World Championship without gravel. The first of those is for climbers, so there shouldn’t be real competition for riders, but I see that Alaphilippe (Tudor) and Grégoire (FDJ) are announced in Lombardia on Saturday, whereas Paris–Tours would suit them much better. And Pidcock is supposed to go to the ‘gravel’ race on Sunday.

By the way, it will be Arnaud Démare’s last professional race.