The French one-day race featured nine gravel sectors towards the pointy end of the 217 kilometer journey from Chartres to Tours. As the pack arrived at the succession of bumpier sectors, Sunweb’s Soren Kragh Andersen was solo off the front, and Wallays put in a big surge to bridge up to the Dane with over 50 kilometers to go.
The chase group behind failed to bring him back in as Wallays finished with 30 seconds to spare. Niki Terpstra (Total Direct Energie) and Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) had gone off the front of the chase group with 5km remaining, a fruitless attempt to bring back Wallays.
“I had a good feeling from the beginning and this week,” Wallays said. “I gave it all and I had a happy ending.
“It’s a totally different race now with the off-roads. The first time I won was in the early breakaway with Tommy Voeckler and we had tail winds!
“This time it was head winds and then it turned as well. Totally different.”
Paris-Tours 2019 results:
| 1 | Jelle Wallays (Lotto Soudal) | 5:34:20 |
| 2 | Niki Terpstra (Total Direct Energie) | +29” |
| 3 | Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) | +30” |
| 4 | Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) | +36” |
| 5 | Amaury Capiot (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) | +49” |
| 6 | Aime De Gendt (Wanty-Gobert) | ,, |
| 7 | Lars Bak (Dimension Data) | +51” |
| 8 | Bert De Backer (Vital Concept-B&B Hotels) | +53” |
| 9 | Kevyn Ista (Wallonie Bruxelles) | ,, |
| 10 | Julien Vermote (Dimension Data) | ,, |
