Etoile de Besseges: Coquard takes second straight win on stage 4

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Bryan Coquard (Europcar) beat his more experienced counterparts as he took his second stage victory on the queen stage of the Etoile de Bessèges.

The 21-year-old sprinted up the Mur de Laudun to beat John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) and his compatriot Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Belisol), to double his win tally for the year. The result matches his success in last year’s race, where the Frenchman secured his first professional victories.

Sander Helven (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) kept hold of his five-second lead over Benoît Jarrier (Bretagne Séché Environment). Helven has been in the leader’s jersey since his own victory on stage one.

The parcours on the fourth stage consisted of predominantly flat road, but the 15km finishing loop contain the category two climb the Mur de Laudun meant that a sprint finish wasn’t a foregone conclusion.

Six riders escaped after only a few kilometres, to form the day’s break. The sextet were Branislau Samoilau (CCC Polsat), Sean De Bie (Lotto Belisol), Romain Sicard (Europcar), Yauheni Hutarovitch (AG2R La Mondiale), Clément Koretzky (Bretagne Séché) and Thomas Rostollan (La Pomme Marseille 13).

Igor Frovlov (Itra Katusha) tried to bridge the gap to the six leaders, but resistence was futile and he was quickly swallowed back into the peloton.

With the presence of Hutarovich and Koretzky in the break, who started the day only 30 and 32 seconds, respectively, down on leader Helven, the break was given not much more than two minutes ahead of the bunch. The first to fall from the lead group were Sicard, Rostollan and the Belarusian Hutarovich, with 15km to go.

The three remaining riders pushed on in earnest and continued to hold off the chasing peloton. A sprint finish didn’t look likely though, when the remaining escapees still had 22 seconds over the peloton, with a kilometre to go. The leading trio were helped by the double climb up the Mur de Laudun. It all came together at the last minute, with the sprinters’ teams driving the pace hard.

Europcar weren’t put off by the seemingly insurmountable challenge and the chased hard. In the dying moments of the race, it was all back together and Coquard avoided a late crash to convert his team’s work into another stage win.

Helven’s lead in the competition isn’t secure. He will have to defend his five-second gap over the largely uphill 10.7km time trial in Ales.

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