Etoile de Besseges: Sarreau wins stage 1

Marc Sarreau (FDJ) won stage 1 of Étoile de Bessèges, beating Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie) and Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept) in a bunch finish in Beaucaire.

Coquard’s Vital Concept team was very active through the day in helping to set up the mass finish, but the Frenchman suffered a mechanical problem on the finishing circuit. Although he managed to chase back on through the race convoy, Coquard paid for that effort in the finishing sprint, and had to settle for third place.

Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) took fourth ahead of Sean De Bie (Veranda’s Willems-Crelan), but the day belonged to the 24-year-old Sarreau, who produced a well-timed effort to fend off the challenges of Boudat and Coquard.

The opening day of the first stage race of the French calendar was marked by a three-man break featuring Michel Dieleman (Cibel-Cebon), Artiz Bagües (Euskadi Basque Country-Murias) and Milan Menten (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), who escaped in the first two kilometres of racing.

In temperatures of nine degrees and beneath slate grey skies, the trio built up a maximum advantage of 3:35 before the sprinters’ teams began to keep closer tabs on their buffer.

By the final 60 kilometres, the gap had been pared down to a very manageable two minutes, and it dropped still further on the second of two ascents of the Côte de la Tour, where Menten secured a stint in the king of the mountains jersey and Bagües briefly betrayed signs of suffering before latching back on over the summit.

In the final hour of racing, Vital Concept were particularly active at the head of the peloton, determined to pilot Coquard to the nascent team’s first victory after a pair of near misses at the recent Sharjah Tour in the UAE.

Justin Mottier and Adrien Garel were especially active for Jerome Pineau’s team, and their combined efforts helped to shave the break’s lead down to 50 seconds by the time the race crossed the finish line in Beaucaire for the first time with 24 kilometres remaining.

Menten was the first of the escapees to lose touch, and he was dropped from the breakaway on the first of three laps of the finishing circuit. Coquard suffered his mechanical issue shortly afterwards and was forced to a stop at the roadside.

While Vital Concept relinquished their lead of the peloton, Cofidis, Delko and AG2R La Mondiale took up the reins to keep eating into Dieleman and Bagües’ advantage at the head of the race.

On reaching the final lap, Dieleman opted to try his luck alone and accelerated away from Bagües, but it earned him only the briefest of reprieves. AG2R La Mondiale – with the interests of both sprinter Rudy Barbier and GC leader Tony Gallopin in mind – were setting a fearsome pace, and Dieleman was reeled in with five kilometres remaining.

By that point, Coquard had managed to re-join the fray and work his way back up towards the head of the peloton. In a rapid and fraught finale, no single team was able to dictate terms at the front, and a keenly-contested bunch sprint ensued.

Sarreau has won two stage of the Tour de Poitou-Charentes in the past and performed strongly at Scheldeprijs, and he got his season off to the perfect start by producing a fine turn of speed here. He will carry the leader’s jersey into Thursday’s stage 2 from Nîmes to Générac, where the fast men will expect to have another opportunity to fight it out for stage honours.

Last year’s overall winner Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) stayed out of harm’s way in the finale and finished 11th on the stage. The Frenchman will be among the riders expected to shine as the terrain grows hillier at the weekend.

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