Kévin Vauquelin celebrating his stage 5 time trial win (Image credit: Getty Images)
Kevin Vauquelin celebrating his stage 5 time trial win (Image credit: Getty Images)
Kevin Vauquelin took victory on stage 5 of the Etoile de Besseges(Image credit: Getty Images)
Kevin Vauquelin took victory on stage 5 of the Etoile de Besseges(Image credit: Getty Images)
Kevin Vauquelin took victory on stage 5 of the Etoile de Besseges(Image credit: Getty Images)
Nicolas Breuillard (St Michel - Preference Home - Auber93) was the closest GC rival(Image credit: Getty Images)
The final stage time trial at the 2025 Étoile de Bessèges was taken by Kévin Vauquelin of Arkea-B&B Hotels the final stage, doubling up on stage wins and the overall general classification with a dominant ride winning the stage by 19 seconds over Rémi Cavagna of Groupama-FDJ and Dylan Teuns of Cofidis.
The fifth and final stage of the race was an individual time trial in the town of Ales with an uphill finish to the hermitage. Vauquelin held a healthy 51-second advantage over his closest rival, Nicolas Breuillard (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93), with a 10.6km route with a 10% climb to the stage finish to decide the winner.
Thankfully for the riders, after two days of horrendous weather, the sunshine had come back out again. The first rider off the ramp was Dylan Massa (Nice Métropole Côte d’Azur). Out of the early finishers, it was Oliver Knight (Cofidis) who led the way with a time of 15:52.
Knight was eventually beaten by 19-year-old Maxime Decomble (Groupama-FDJ) putting 20 seconds into the young British rider. However, Decomble was soon beaten by his teammate Cavagna.
The former French road and time trial champion put in a very strong performance. He topped the standings with Thibault Guernalec (Arkea-B&B Hotels) splitting him and Decomble.
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the top times were set by riders who were also involved in the fight for the general classification. Several in the GC top 10 found their names slotting into the top 10 on the stage.
None of the riders in the four leader’s jerseys actually wore the jerseys as there weren’t any skinsuits available for them to wear so they all raced in their own team skinsuits for the race.
Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) put in a very solid ride, slotting into the top 10 and solidifying his position in the final GC. Shortly after Latour, the Cofidis rider Teuns put in a very strong time to go into second place just 2 seconds down on Cavagna.
The time by Teuns actually was good enough to leap over Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) in the GC with the rider from Luxembourg losing almost 17 seconds to the former Flèche Wallonne winner.
However, both Teuns and Geniets jumped above the new French climbing sensation of Nicolas Breuillard (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) who slipped down the GC losing almost a minute.
After Breuillard finished off his effort he was soon followed by Vauquelin who was storming to the finish with an exceptionally strong ride to take the stage by 19 seconds over Cavagna with a time of 15:07.
This stage win adding to his win the day before on the Mont Bouquet mean that he comfortably took the final overall general classification by well over a minute on Teuns and the rest with former second overall, Breuillard, dropping to fifth overall.
Vauquelin took the time trial in 2024 as well but missed out on the overall win by just 2 seconds to Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek). Pedersen left the race early this year due to illness, shortly followed by his team and eight others who left with safety concerns.
The race wasn’t what the organisers would have wanted with multiple incidents with the public driving on the course, rider protests, teams pulling out and atrociously bad weather conditions. But, the race was completed with a superb ride by 23-year-old Vauquelin.
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.
