Etoile de Bessèges: Samuel Leroux holds off charging field to win stage 4
Dries De Bondt takes second, Stefan Bissegger third in breakaway sprint into Méjannes-le-Clap















Samuel Leroux surprised the big-name riders and overall contenders at the Etoile de Bessèges, winning stage 4 to Méjannes-le-Clap from the early break of the day.
The Van Rysel–Roubaix rider dug deep on the climb to the finish to close a gap, hold off the peloton and win the four-rider sprint.
Leroux beat Dries De Bondt (Decathlon Ag2r), Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) Jonas Hvideberg and Jonas Iversby Hvideberg (both Uno-X Mobility).
Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) won the sprint behind for fifth place, just two seconds down on a tired but happy Leroux.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) finished in the chase group and so retained the overall race lead, with just Sunday’s 10.6km individual time trial around Alès to race. He leads Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck) by just six seconds, with eight other riders within 28 seconds.
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Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
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