I watched the final 25k on OLN. Devolder and Gilbert were working fine together, but all bets were off and war declared when Gilbert attacked Devolder on the small climbs near the finish. From that point on, each man was racing his own race. In the last few k's, Devolder and Gilbert were actually riding side-by-side chatting away in Belgian when they could've been putting in those precious few extra turns to gain much-needed time over the fast approaching peleton which was hell-bent on a field sprint finish. Gilbert must have been pissed with Devolder, but Gilbert needed to be thinking like a road racer instead of a sprinter and dropped Devolder when he sensed that he wasn't getting the cooperation he needed from Devolder. Minutes, not seconds, over the peleton in the final few k's gives you room to play sprint-positioning games with your breakaway partner. This is especially true on the finish of Paris-Tours. The Avenue de Grammont is long and straight. There is nothing to slow down a fast-charging peleton breathing down your neck and biting at your heels, no corners to dissapear behind, no traffic circles or islands to disrupt the peleton's advance. The two were caught 200m from the line, but they lost it in the last few k's.