Laporte wins Etoile de Besseges TT and overall title

Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) won the final time trial of the Étoile de Bessèges to clinch the overall race victory in Alès. 

The Frenchman put in a surprisingly strong ride to beat Tobias Ludvigsson (Groupama-FDJ) by fractions of a second to hold on to his race lead and confirm the overall win, his second and third wins of the season. Jimmy Janssens (Corendon-Circus) took third on the stage, 13 seconds down on the lead duo.

The stage standings were reflected in the final overall standings too, with Laporte finishing 16 seconds ahead of Ludvigsson and 29 seconds ahead of Janssens.

It was a damp day for a chrono, with the clouds bursting intermittently throughout the stage. But with the course being just 10.7km long, the wet roads wouldn’t have had such a pronounced effect on the standings as it would with a longer stage.

The early benchmark was made by Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), who put in a time of 16:21 and sat in the hot seat for much of the day. It wasn’t until Janssens hit the course and recorded a time of 15:52 that Pedersen was dethroned.

Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) missed out on the lead by fractions of a second, the same time he missed out on the overall podium to Janssens.

Other strong performers on the day included the EF Education First duo of Sep Vanmarcke and Sebastian Langeveld. The pair finished within 20 seconds of Laporte to take fifth and sixth on the stage.

Both Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept-B&B Hotels) and Marc Sarreau (Groupama-FDJ) headed into the final stage in contention for the overall win, both lying within six seconds of Laporte after stage 3. But, despite the short course being somewhat suited to punchy sprinters, neither managed to remain in the mix for the GC, losing time on the uphill drag to the finish.

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