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.
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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
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/etoile-de-bessges-2018/stage-3/results
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