There are some ways to say goodbye, but Mateo Trentin’s farewell to his Quick-Step team at the Paris-Tours was perfect. The Italian, set to move to the Australian squad of Orica-Scott over the winter, showed the initiative and power that has earned him such adulation to become his team’s first and only choice once it became clear that their chosen sprinter Fernando Gaviria would not be able to contest the sprint fully, having falling on a slick corner a few moments earlier.
He attacked to break the race apart, taking team-mate Niki Terpstra and BMC’s Jempy Drucker, and another dig meant that he was left alone with Søren Kragh Andersen of Sunweb, before Terpstra re-joined them to make a trip after Trentin had eased the pace.
From then, he was always going to be the favourite in a three-man sprint and he duly took the honours, beating Andersen into second with Terpstra in third. A visibly annoyed Andre Greipel took fourth place from the bunch, beating Maximiliano Richeze, who gave Quick-Step three of the first five finishers.
The day’s break went relatively early, although Brian van Goethem (Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij) Michael Goolaerts (Verandas Willems Crelan), Lawrence Naesen (WB Veranclassic Aqua Protect), Stephan Poulhies (Armee de Terre), and Romain Combaud (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) all had to work hard to escape the clutches of the peloton. They would build a gap of 6 minutes over the peloton, who entrusted Quick-Step to take upon the chase single handedly, continuing a theme that had been very common through the season.
This meant that inside the final 100km, the advantage of the break had been clipped to under three minutes, with Katusha-Alpecin, Lotto-Soudal and LottoNL-Jumbo coming to the aid of the tireless Iljo Keisse. The break began to struggle as the pace was lifted, with Michael Goolaerts going too deep into a corner and eventually being caught not shortly after Poulhies had been reabsorbed. Upfront, Naesen was pushing on and would be the strongest of the break, dropping Comboud as he approached the last 20km.
A sprint with a big group was expected until Gaviria, one of the strongest favourites, slid out on a right-hand bend. The Colombian recovered himself quickly and wasn’t unduly affected, but his woes were a red flag to many hungry teams who put the hammer down to make his task impossible, chief amongst them AG2R La Mondiale.
Trentin, now the best chance his team had, put in a big attack twice on the Côte de Beau Soleil, breaking the race apart, and with him and Terpstra in a front group of three, the Italian always held the strongest chance of taking the win.
