Coquard wins stage 3 of Etoile de Bessèges

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Europcar's Bryan Coquard opened his 2015 account with a victory on stage 3 of the Etoile de Bessèges, out-sprinting Trek's Giacomo Nizzolo and Edward Theuns (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) in the 152km circuit from Bessèges.

The race lead went to Theuns, who claimed a savvy three-second intermediate sprint bonus after 42.9km of racing, then rode the wave of sprint trains as they swept past the breakaway inside the final kilometre to land third on the stage. With the time bonuses, he moved over Lotto Belisol's Kris Boeckmans into the leader's jersey.

There were no complaints about the weather on stage 3: with barely a hint of wind and 7 degrees Celsius, and the stage began by heading straight into the category 1 Col de Trélys, the riders were warm soon enough. Carlos Quintero (Colombia) took the first mountain points of the day, but there were two more trips up the same climb in addition to the uncategorised Col des Brousses to come.

Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R La Mondiale), Evaldas Siskevicius (Team Marseille 13-KTM), Boris Dron (Wanty Group Gobert) and Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC Polkowice Sprandi) escaped on the Col des Brousses, but their move was short-lived, and they were caught after the descent.

At the end of the lap, Theuns, second in the opening stage to Boeckmans, won the intermediate sprint bonus over Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal), moving into the virtual race lead.

His virtual lead was soon reversed by a breakaway that escaped on the second trip up the Col de Trélys. Jimmy Engoulvent (Team Europcar), Jorge Camilo Castiblanco (Team Columbia), Wesley Kreder (Team Roompot), Baptiste Planckaert (Roubaix-Lille Métropole), Frederik Veuchelen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Julien Loubet (Team Marseille 13-KTM) and Brice Feillu (Bretagne Séché Environnement) made up the move, but Engoulvent, Castiblanco, and Kreder were quickly distanced.

Feillu claimed the mountain points over Loubet, Planckaert and Veuchelen, but the peloton was less than 20 seconds behind on the top of the next trip over the Col des Brousses.

Planckaert decided to go it alone, and while the rest went back to the peloton, the lone Belgian began to chip away a larger lead. When Pierre Rolland (Europcar) bridged across, and then Frederik Backaert (Wanty Group Gobert), Yoann Paillot (Team Marseille 13-KTM), Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural) and Flavien Dassonville (Auber 93) eventually joined, there was enough firepower to keep the move going for the rest of the stage.

The peloton played a game of cat and mouse that it very nearly lost, allowing the six riders to gain nearly three minutes, of which they held nearly a minute with 10km to go.

Even as the final kilometre approached, the peloton still had a gap to close, but the junction was finally made at last. The young Topsport sprinter followed Coquard across the line, being pipped for second place by Nizzolo, but doing just enough to earn the race lead.

Boeckmans did not contest the sprint and dropped to second at three seconds, with Marco Coledan (Trek) in third place at nine seconds.

Full Results