Italian sprint ace Alessandro Petacchi of the Milram team won the 101st edition of the Pro Tour Paris-Tours classic over 256km on Sunday.
Led out by his German team-mate Eric Zabel, Petacchi edged compatriot Francesco Chicchi in the final sprint.
Former three-time world champion Oscar Freire of Spain was third after being impeded in the sprint with Dutchman Steven De Jongh and Australians Allan Davis and Robbie McEwen finishing next.
Petacchi paid tribute to his German team-mate Zabel, who beat him into second in 2003 when they were on opposing teams.
"Erik did an incredible job in the final sprint. In the end, I'm basically glad he beat me in 2003," said Petacchi.
"I made the mistake of setting off too early in the sprint and I seized up in the final 50m. I learnt my lesson and this time I set off at just the right time.
"To win in this way, with him (Zabel) leading me out, it's as if I won twice. After Milan-Sanremo it's my best victory."
Petacchi also took time to reflect on a badly disrupted season in which he was cleared of doping despite returning a non-negative result for the Asthma drug Salbutamol.
He was later cleared of doping by the Italian Cycling Federation, who put the result down to human error, although the Italian Olympic Committee has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
"This season has been the most difficult of my career," said Petacchi. "It began badly with my broken knee last year.
"After the Giro (Tour of Italy in June) other problems started (the doping suspicion). I went through every stage of suffering, even though I won two stages at (September's) Vuelta (Tour of Spain).
"Finally, without a doubt, it's today that I've had my best day of the year."
This, the penultimate Pro Tour race of the season, began at altitude for the first three hours of racing as the sprinters' teams controlled the pace.
There were several breakaway attempts, the last of which, involving Belgian Philippe Gilbert, Karsten Kroon of the Netherlands and Italy's Filippo Pozzato made the most of a slight climb to jump off the front 8km from the end and held a lead of 20sec inside the final 3km but they were hunted down in the final kilometre.
In claiming the final sprint, Petacchi won his second big classic after Milan-Sanremo in 2005.
Italian Tour of Italy champion and former Pro Tour winner Danilo Di Luca still leads the Pro Tour standings from Australia's Cadel Evans and Tour de France winner Alberto Contador.
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