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.
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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.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/etoile-de-bessges-2018/stage-1/results
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