Etoile de Besseges: Sarreau wins stage 3

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Marc Sarreau (FDJ) gave his team its second victory of the Etoile de Besseges, taking out the sprint in Besseges after a taxing 152km circuit over Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie) and Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale).

It was a tense finale, with a tenacious late three-man breakaway only being reeled in by FDJ with 500m to go.

Their confidence in Sarreau was rewarded by regaining the race lead - he now leads Boudat by 8 seconds, with overnight race leader Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) now in third at 10 seconds.

With three large laps that included the category 1 Col de Trelis and the unclassified Col des Brousses directly after the crest, the third stage of the Etoile de Besseges presented an opportunity for the climbers to come to the fore after two days of sprints. However, a fast descent and flat final 25km would prove difficult to carve out large gaps between the contenders.

This did not stop the rouleurs from burning their matches early on. The attacks came from the gun despite the first summit coming only six kilometres into the stage. Jonathan Hivert (Direct Energie), Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale), Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Delko Marseille-Provence KTM)and Gianni Marchand (Cibel-Cebon) were the first to attack, and were joined by Remy di Gregorio (Delko Marseille-Provence KTM), who duly claimed the maximum points at the summit.

The five riders were chased by Marco Bernardinetti (Amore & Vita-Prodir) for a time, but the Italian never made the catch and was swept up by the peloton as the lead group kept their lead at just over two-minutes. The gap wavered between 1:20 in the valley and 2:30 on the second climb before plummeting on the final lap, with Direct Energie putting Lilian Calmejane at the front to shred the bunch on the Col de Trelis.

The counter attack

The breakaway was finally swept up with 57km to go, and mass a counter-attack by AG2R La Mondiale ensued, with three riders forging clear - Tony Gallopin, Cosnefroy and Timothy Dupont being joined by Julien El Fares (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) and FDJ’s Leo Vincent, but their gap never surpassed 30 seconds, allowing motivated riders a chance to jump across.

Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) made the bridge, then Anthony Turgis (Cofidis), and finally Anthony Delaplace (Fortuneo-Samsic) before Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept) made a cheeky move on the opposite side of a highway median from the peloton, and rode across to the move. But there were still 42km to traverse and the peloton was regrouping behind. What was a breakaway became two halves of the peloton as more riders surged to the fore with 36km to go for one final small climb.

Delko Marseille continued their aggressive tactics, sending Romain Combaud up the road with 34.5km to go on a false flat. There was no panic in the peloton, who let the single rider gain a solid lead while vests were shed and bottles retrieved. With 31km to go, Backaert tried to bridge the 32-second gap to Combaud - a tall order that was aided by the arrival of Sport Vlaanderen’s Dries Van Gestel on a twisty descent.

The leader Combaud arrived in Besseges with a 36 second advantage over the peloton for three laps of the local circuit with the chasers soon in sight of his support vehicles, 15 seconds behind. By the first pass of the finish line, the three attackers came together as FDJ set a steady tempo behind. When the leaders’ gap went out to 40 seconds with 14km to go, FDJ became more serious about the pace-setting, and they lined out the peloton in pursuit.

The sprinters’ teams felt they had the situation well under control with 9km to go as the gap continued to hover at the 40-second mark. Cofidis and Vital Concept began to pitch in, and the gap began to fall rapidly. With one 6.9km lap to go, the trio had 28 seconds and with three kilometres to go they still had 12. FDJ’s Bruno Armirail was earning his stripes doing most of the work, but it was without help, the leaders’ gap went out to 16 seconds with two to go.

As the red kite approached, the peloton had the trio in its sights, but had they timed it wrong? The answer came with 500m to go when FDJ swept past and delivered Sarreau to the win.

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