Lilian Calmejane gave Direct Energie its first victory of the season in the Etoile de Bessèges, soloing in to claim stage 3 and the overall race lead on a hilly circuit.

Calmejane was part of a large breakaway that included his teammate Sylvain Chavanel, and gained almost 11 minutes on the peloton.

The breakaway also included Samuel Dumoulin, Pierre Latour, Hubert Dupont (AG2R La Mondiale), Damien Gaudin (Armee de Terre), Jaime Roson (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Jimmy Janssens (Cibel - Cebon), Christophe Laporte, Jerome Cousin (Cofidis), Mauro Finetto, Julien El Fares, Romain Combaud, Quentin Pacher (Delko Marseille Provence KTM), Romain Hardy, Arnold Jeannesson (Fortuneo - Vital Concept), Mads Würtz Schmidt, Nils Politt, Reto Hollenstein, Rein Taaramäe (Katusha-Alpecin), Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal), Roland Thalmann (Roth - Akros), Frederik Backaert (Wanty - Groupe Gobert) and Maxime Vantomme (WB Veranclassic Aqua Protect).

On the final climb, the skies opened up and the attacks began into the downpour, with Calmejane, Dupont, Combaud and Cousin jumping clear, but there was still little cooperation in the move and they were reeled in.

Dupont attacked ahead of the final 7km circuit, but he too was caught. But Calmejane went again with Pacher (Deklo Marseille) and although they only gained half a minute, they were still clear of the chasers with 5km to go but the gap fell to the single digits.

When Calmejane dropped his companion, however, the move worked, and he was able to stay away to win by seven seconds over Mads Würtz Schmidt (Katusha-Alpecin) and take the race lead by 17 seconds, thanks to two intermediate sprint time bonuses. Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) is third at 18 seconds.

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