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Tours - Denmark's Soren Kragh Andersen clinched victory in the 112th Paris-Tours race on Sunday even if the revamped course, which weaved its way through picturesque vineyards, was not to everybody's taste.
Kragh Andersen, of the Sunweb team, claimed a solo win, a year after he finished second.
With the latter part of the race contested through vineyards, a move aimed to improve the spectacle for television cameras, the Dane finished 25 seconds ahead of Dutchman Niki Terpstra, the winner of the Tour of Flanders.
France's Benoit Cosnefroy was third with Oliver Naesen of Belgium taking fourth spot.
Kragh Andersen, 24, is the first Danish winner since Jakob Piil in 2002, and thrived on the revamped section of the course where the last 60km were raced through wine country, over gravel surfaces and up a number of hills.
"I'm not sure this is a good thing," said Cosnefroy. "The course through the vineyards is spectacular but not historic."
Kragh Andersen begged to differ after a testing race which saw many in the peloton suffer punctures.
"The course was amazing. Some areas were a bit dangerous but I liked it. It was a real classic."
Top 10 finishers
1. Soren Kragh Andersen (DEN/Sunweb) 4hr 37min 55sec, 2. Niki Terpstra (DEN/QST) at 25, 3. Benoit Cosnefroy (FRA/ALM) 25, 4. Oliver Naesen (BEL/ALM) 1:14., 5. Valentin Madouas (FRA/FDJ) 1:14, 6. Tiesj Benoot (BEL/LOT) 1:14, 7. Sep Vanmarcke (BEL/EFD) 1:14, 8. Philippe Gilbert (BEL/QST) 1:14, 9. Taco van der Hoorn (NED/RNL) 1:24, 10. Jos van Emden (NED/LNL) 1:2
