Per Strand Hagenes (Team Visma | Lease A Bike, Norway) won Paris-Tours on 11 October, solo, with a 2″ lead, in 4h31’46”. Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step, Belgium) was second, Christophe Laporte (Team Visma | Lease A Bike, France) third.
The race
The race started fast. After about ten kilometres the breakaway formed and over the first two hours the average speed was just above 48 kilometres an hour. Five men stayed out in front: Stefan Bissegger, Yves Lampaert, Storm Ingebrigtsen, Matis Louvel and Julius van den Berg. Their lead peaked at around three minutes.
Visma | Lease A Bike, who had Laporte and Dorian Godon as their leaders, did much of the chasing, along with Decathlon CMA CGM, helped by other teams. The character of the race changed in the finale, when the route enters the vineyards with short climbs and gravel sections. The peloton stretched out, the breakaway’s margin shrank and punctures began to tell.
Several riders crashed in the peloton, Arnaud De Lie among them, and the selection became a matter of legs and luck. The group of the best riders was whittled down on the côtes before Tours: up front were Hagenes, Laporte, Stuyven, Toms Skujins, Paul Lapeira, Lewis Askey and Jonas Abrahamsen, among others.
Skujins was the most active: he attacked several times, trying to break the balance. But those with him cooperated poorly and a sprint looked within reach.
It was Hagenes who changed the game. While Skujins was still trying to drop the others, the Norwegian pulled out of the group, took a few lengths and never stopped. No one reacted in time. Stuyven tried to bridge across alone, but Hagenes’s advantage held: 2” at the line.
Behind him Stuyven took second place and Laporte, his team-mate, third. Visma thus won without their designated leader. For Hagenes, who is 23, it is a fifth professional win and a second in 2026, after the Antwerp Port Epic.
Since 2018 no Norwegian had won Paris-Tours and no winner had been younger than Hagenes. Since 2019, moreover, no one had put a wider gap on the runner-up.
The first Italian is Matteo Trentin, Tudor Pro Cycling Team, 29th at 1’13”. 136 riders finished out of 165 starters.
How they finished
The top ten
| # | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Per Strand Hagenes | Team Visma | Lease A Bike | 4h31’46” |
| 2 | Jasper Stuyven | Soudal Quick-Step | +2″ |
| 3 | Christophe Laporte | Team Visma | Lease A Bike | +2″ |
| 4 | Matys Grisel | Lotto Intermarché | +2″ |
| 5 | Jonas Abrahamsen | Uno-X Mobility | +2″ |
| 6 | Paul Lapeira | Decathlon CMA CGM Team | +2″ |
| 7 | Thibaud Gruel | Groupama-Fdj United | +2″ |
| 8 | Lewis Askey | NSN Cycling Team | +2″ |
| 9 | Florian Senechal | Alpecin-Premier Tech | +2″ |
| 10 | Toms Skujins | Lidl-Trek | +9″ |
The race in numbers
- Selection index
- 76 out of 100 Of 136 finishers: 12 within 30 seconds of the winner, 57 within 2 minutes, 100 within 10 minutes (him included). It runs from 0, a bunch sprint, to 98, a solo finish.
News written with the help of Mnemosyne.
Sources
- Results and times: UCI, official results.
- Photo: René Hourdry, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Corrected on 11 October 2026: the race was named «Paris» instead of «Paris-Tours».