Étoile de Bèsseges: Filippo Ganna wins stage 4

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Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) won stage 4 at the Étoile de Bèsseges on Saturday. The time trial world champion attacked his all-day breakaway companions in the final kilometres and soloed to victory in Saint Siffret.

Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) won the uphill bunch sprint for second place ahead of Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe), while Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) retains the overall lead.

Ganna was one of the early breakaway riders that included Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Alexys Brunel (Groupama-FDJ), Ludovic Robeet (Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles) and Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Fenix) and they were later joined by Niki Terpstra and Pierre Latour (Total Direct Energie), and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-Nippo) on the local circuits. 

Ganna made his winning move, just as the main field was about the close down the gap to the breakaway with 8km to go, using his powerful time trial strength to pull away from the chase group and the main field to take the stage win. The main field reeled in the rest of the breakaway riders on the sharp 1km climb to the finish line in Saint Siffret.

The top three in the overall classification stayed the same with Wellens retaining the orange leader’s jersey with 44 seconds on Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) and 46 seconds on Mads Würtz Schmidt (Israel Start-up Nation).

Étoile de Bèsseges concludes on Sunday with an 11km time trial in Alès.

How it unfolded

The fourth stage of Étoile de Bèsseges offered a 152km race between Rousson and Saint Siffret with two categorised climbs; Côte Lussan (15km) and Côte de Cavillargues (43km) followed by three intermediate sprints whereby the first two passed through the finish line at 63km and 110km, and the third on the local lap at 131km. The stage then ended with a punchy 1km climb to the finish in Saint Siffret.

Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Alexys Brunel (Groupama-FDJ) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) have jumped away from the peloton over the Côte Lussan, and a small 15-second gap bloomed out to 2:15 with roughly 120km remaining. Ludovic Robeet (Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles) and Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Fenix) attempted to bridge the gap and managed to make the connection ahead of the second ascent Côte de Cavillargues.

Back in the peloton, Lotto Soudal were in control but the breakaway was no threat to their overall race lead Tim Wellens. 

They passed through Saint Siffert and cross the finish line for the first time with a reduced gap of 1:20 on the field. As the race progressed along the local circuits, B&B Hotels p/b KTM joined Lotto Soudal in the chase but the breakaway riders held their lead at around 1:40. At 50km to go, it was EF Education-Nippo, B&B Hotels, and Total Direct Energie that brought the gap down to under a minute, and further down to just 30 seconds inside the last 25km.

Niki Terpstra and Pierre Latour (Total Direct Energie), and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-Nippo) crossed the small gap and joined Perez, Brunel, Robeet, De Bondt and Ganna and helped in their last efforts to stay way to the finish line.

Lotto Soudal, Bora-Hansgrohe, Trek-Segafredo and AG2R Citroën took up at the reins at the head of the peloton, and cut the gap down to 15 seconds in the closing kilometres. 

As the main field loomed behind, Ganna attacked the breakaway with 8km to go, showing that his powerful time trial strength was no match for the others. He padded out his lead to 20 seconds on the chasers and 40 seconds on the peloton inside the final 5km, then covered the last 2km almost effortlessly to secure the stage win.