Watch Lapeira and Gruel throw away certain 1-2 at Paris Tours | Video

Paul Lapeira and Thibaud Gruel were guaranteed 1st and 2nd at Paris-Tours but they conspired in the last 1.5km to throw it all away

Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Thibaud Gruel (Groupama FDJ) were guaranteed 1st and 2nd at Paris-Tours but they conspired in the last 1.5km to throw it all away.

Both declined to take the lead in their two-man move to keep the momentum going, and when three of the four chasing riders continued to ride to catch them, the outcome of the race was turned upside down just before the line.

Almost immediately the two breakaway men were caught, the final sprint began and Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling) took his chance to win his third Paris Tours. That third win yesterday came 10 years after his first and it was also his first win of the season.

Lapeira and Gruel attacked with 36km to go and managed to get clear of the peloton that had been whittled down through the 212km race, with 10 gravel sections and eight climbs in the last 75km.

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Trentin was delighted with his win - his third at Paris Tours, a decade after his first victory - as he got his hands in the air for the first time this season after a remarkable final (Photo: Tony Esnault)

Though the two leaders never got much more than 30 seconds, and were hunted down in the final by the counter-attacking chasing group, they had more than 10 seconds with 1km to go and should have stayed clear.

However, the chasers could see they were messing around up ahead, freewheeling and checking behind at the same time as the pace fell away from their two-man move.

That spurred on Trentin, Christophe Laporte (Visma Lease a Bike) and former world junior road race champion, Albert Philipsen (Lidl Trek), who had Lapeira's team mate, Stefan Bissegger, for company.

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As the two leaders came to a near track stand, the four chasers closed up on them and made the catch with about 500m to go. Bissegger then went to the front in a bid to lead out Lapeira, though Trentin sprinted in to win from Laporte and Philipsen (19).

Lapeira and Gruel could only manage 4th and 5th after all their efforts. Gruel was perhaps the most negative up front in the final, and Lapeira also stubbornly refused to ride until both conspired to completely surrender their chance.

Irish champion Rory Townsend (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and new World Tour pro Jamie Meehan (Cofidis) were both in the race, with Townsend placing 118th at 15:31. Meehan was a non-finisher, two days after riding Tour de Vendée (1.1), where he finished in the bunch sprinting for victory, placing 38th.

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