Defending champion Jordi Meeus finishes fifth at Paris-Bourges 2022

Well known as a race for the fast men, also today Paris-Bourges ended in a bunch sprint. An early break of three riders was reeled in with about 30km to go and the sprinter teams made sure no attacks had a chance in the finale. BORA – hansgrohe tried to move up late but their attempt came a little too late today. Defending champion Jordi Meeus had to launch his sprint from outside the top ten positions on the home straight and crossed the line in fifth place while J. Philipsen took the win after more than 200km of racing. 

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Results 

01       J. Philipsen                         5:19:28

02       A. Demare                          + 0:00

03       B. Coquard                         + 0:00

05       J. Meeus                            + 0:00

From the finish line

“The team worked well together but, in the end, we couldn’t get the result we hoped for. Martin started to control the race early in the bunch and also in the hard part we had everything under control. Our plan was to go for Jordi today and we knew we need to be in front when we hit the last 3km. But the pace was really high as a lot of teams had still their full lead-out trains and it was impossible to move up anymore. We simply waited a little too long today and should have invested more earlier. Jordi was outside the top ten in the last corner and started his sprint early. He had good legs, but it was too late. Fifth place is not bad, but for sure not what would have been possible today. But like I said, overall, the team did a good job, and all have been committed. In sprints a lot of things can happen and today we didn’t get it right.” – Jean-Pierre Heynderickx, Sports Director