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February 2, 2024
Étoile de Bessèges 2024 🇫🇷 – Stage 3 – Bessèges – Bessèges : 161,11 km
The Etoile de Bessèges-Tour du Gard 2024 is the 54th edition of this men’s cycling race.
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February 2, 2024
Étoile de Bessèges 2024 🇫🇷 – Stage 3 – Bessèges – Bessèges : 161,11 km
The Etoile de Bessèges-Tour du Gard 2024 is the 54th edition of this men’s cycling race. It takes place in the Gard, France between January 31 and February 4, 2024 between Bellegarde and Alès on a 654.68 km course and is part of the UCI Europe Tour 2024 calendar in category 2.1.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) scored his first victory of the season on stage 3 of Etoile de Bessèges, powering to the win in the reduced-group sprint after a tough day of climbing.
The Dane survived the six categorised climbs on the 161.1km route starting and finishing in Bessèges with enough left in the tank to outsprint Milan Menten (Lotto Dstny) and Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) after the peloton reeled in a last-ditch attack from Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).
A strong seven-rider break including the in-form Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost) had got up the road in the opening 20km of racing. But they were caught on the final categorised climb where attacks from Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Rémy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ) weren’t enough to get rid of Pedersen and the remaining fast men.
Pedersen took over the race lead from stage 2 winner Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck) thanks to the bonus seconds gained on the line, with the Frenchman now six seconds down heading into the final two stages
Results :