Arnaud De Lie taking sprint victory in stage 3 of Etoile de Besseges(Image credit: Getty Images)
Arnaud De Lie taking sprint victory in stage 3 of Etoile de Besseges(Image credit: Getty Images)
Arnaud De Lie taking sprint victory in stage 3 of Etoile de Besseges(Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton riding through adverse weather conditions(Image credit: Getty Images)
Neutralisation and rider protest almost brings a halt to stage 3 of Etoile de Besseges(Image credit: Getty Images)
Neutralisation and rider protest almost brings a halt to stage 3 of Etoile de Besseges(Image credit: Getty Images)
Arnaud De Lie in the early rainy stages of the race(Image credit: Getty Images)
The start of stage 3 of Etoile de Besseges(Image credit: Getty Images)
Despite the shocking weather, rider protests, course changes and various teams leaving the Etoile de Bessèges 2025, the race continued and saw Arnaud De Lie of Lotto power to victory ahead of Arnaud Demare of Arkea-B&B Hotels and Paul Penhoet of Groupama-FDJ.
The third stage of the race was based around the town of Bessèges with the start and finish there with an original route of 164km. However, due to another car driving onto the course the riders protested and the race was shortened to 136km. This removed the local lap around the town.
Following the protest, several teams decided to leave the race instead of restarting. They were the team of race leader, Paul Magnier, Soudal-QuickStep as well as Uno-X Mobility, Decathlon-AG2R, Lidl-Trek, EF Education-EasyPost, Ineos Grenadiers, Unibet Tietema Rockets and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
It was a wet start for the riders in a crisp six degrees celsius. The race kicked off on the first climb of the day, the Col de Trélis.
St Michel-Preferance Home-Auber93 rider, Théo Delacroix, launched on a solo breakaway over the top of the first climb. At the base of the second climb, the Col des Brousses, the riders stopped. Discussions were started with the race organisers and jury president.
The first two stages had seen issues with cars and lorries being able to get onto the course and the police then had to get the riders to divert around them. Even with one car driving towards the peloton.
The third stage was yet another incident involving a car. This time, the peloton came face-to-face with a car on a roundabout. They immediately stopped and refused to continue racing.
After a lot of negotiation between the race and the rider’s union, it was agreed to continue racing and the stage was shortened. However, multiple teams decided that, due to safety concerns, they would leave the race.
Multiple riders attacked when the race restarted with Oliver Knight (Cofidis) with Valentin Retailleau (TotalEnergies), Hugo Aznar (Kern Pharma) and Antoine Hue (CIC-U-Nantes) joining him with a maximum gap of over a minute and a half.
Back in the peloton, the bunch was led by Groupama-FDJ, Arkea-B&B Hotels, Cofidis and TotalEnergies as they looked to set up their sprinters at the finish.
It became very active on the final climb of the day, the Col des Brousses, with Cofidis, St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93, Groupama-FDJ, TotalEnergies all tried to cause splits.
The splits came and a group managed to bridge across to the breakaway including Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) and Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ).
It looked like Arkea-B&B Hotels were closing it down. However, Kevin Vauquelin made a move to try and bridge to the leaders. Unfortunately, for him, he dragged the entire Cofidis team and Belgian national champion Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) across with him.
The carnage continued as Dylan Teuns (Cofidis) launched an attack with two others chasing in the final 18km. The chasers were caught and Teuns continued his solo effort but was caught with just under 5km to go.
A late attack by Pierre Latour (TEN) brought Teuns back with a roundabout on wet roads seeing Latour’s challenge end. It was Groupama-FDJ who took control of the bunch leading out Penhoët. The young French sprinter wasn’t able to hold off the charge of De Lie and Démare who outsprinted him to the line with De Lie winning the stage.
With just 13 out of the 21 teams left in the race the fourth stage should be slightly different to what was originally expected as the Queen Stage to the Mont Bouquet beckons. De Lie is the new race leader, but there is still plenty of climbing talent left in the race.
Tim Bonville-Ginn is a freelance writer who has worked with Cyclingnews since 2023 usually on the live reports. Tim has worked in cycling for many years and has written for some of the biggest publications in cycling media.
He started working as a volunteer for ByTheMin Cycling while at school before getting his first work with Eurosport while still at university. Since then, he worked full-time for Cycling Weekly and has gone on to have a successful freelance career working for Cyclingnews, Rouleur, Cyclist, Velo and many more.
Recently, Tim has also commentated on races in the British National Series for Monument Cycling TV and worked as a media manager for pro teams Human Powered Health and Global6 United.
