With a lot of help from teammate Mickaël Delage Francaise des Jeux' Phillipe Gilbert pulled a great stunt and won this year's edition of Paris-Tours.

Team CSC Saxo Bank did well at the end but was chanceless when Gilbert decided the race by catching up to a group of four with only five kilometers left.

The peloton was kept at bay and Gilbert beat the other four after Delage had done his share during the final kilometers.

Five riders, who lasted for quite a while but never managed to get a large enough gap, opened the race with an attempt. With about 30 kilometers left the peloton had caught the five and shortly before they were swallowed up new groups started tearing themselves loose.

Karsten Kroon was in the first of these which was neutralized after a couple of kilometers following which Kasper Klostergaard made an attempt with 25 kilometers left and he ended in a group of seven for six or seven kilometers.

Klostergaard was in another break shortly after and several attempts followed so the peloton was cut down considerably.

With 16 kilometers to go four riders got away it what was to be the most dangerous attempt: Sébastien Turgot (Bouygues Telecom), Nicolas Vogondy (Agritubel), Mickaël Delage (Francaise des Jeux) and Jan Kuyckx (Landbouwkrediet). The quartet had a 25-second lead with only eight kilometers to go.

Three kilometers later Filippo Pozatto (Liquigas), Phillipe Gilbert (Francaise des Jeux) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank) also tore themselves loose from the peloton and Gilbert ended up catching up to the foursome at the front without Pozzato and Freire.

After that Delage sacrificed himself one hundred percent for Gilbert and pulled the group so hard that Gilbert was able to sprint his way home to victory ahead of Kuyckx, while the peloton, where Matti Breschel was sitting, followed four seconds later.

"Matti was positioned well among the other favorites but Gilbert was simply too fast. Matti had even said beforehand that Gilbert looked really strong in Paris-Bourges, so he knew what he was up against but still he kept on going," were the praising words from Team CS Saxo Bank's sports director Dan Frost after the race.