Stage two of the Etoile de Besseges finished in chaotic fashion today with two crashes inside the closing kilometres. Photo: Twitter @QhubekaAssos
Stage two of the Etoile de Besseges from Saint-Genies de Malgoires to La Calmette finished in chaotic fashion today with two crashes inside the closing kilometres.
Timothy Dupont, riding for the second-tier Bingoal-WB team, claimed victory after a dozen riders escaped the final crash with 500m to go and contested the sprint finish.
The Belgian left his surge late, but managed to get the better of Frenchman Pierre Barbier (Delko). Qhubeka-Assos’ European road-race champion Giacomo Nizzolo was forced to settle for third.
Stage one winner, France’s Christophe Laporte (Cofidis), retained his overall lead.
Despite starting the stage in fourth place, Nizzolo slipped to fifth overall, eight seconds behind Laporte.
“I feel okay, obviously I’d like to win but I think perhaps we actually ended up doing the roundabout a bit too fast and then were at the front for too long and I had to start the sprint early.
“It was a long way to the line, especially as it was going slowly uphill but third place is not too bad and I think we can be confident for tomorrow,” Nizzolo said.
Friday’s stage three is a 154.8km circuit that will start and finish in Besseges and should once again favour the sprinters, despite a category one and two category two climbs en route.
🇨🇵 #EDB2021
Confirmed result for stage 2 of @Etoile_Besseges sees @Giacomonizzolo finish 3rd.
Excellent job from the team on a day that saw a number of crashes in a hectic finale.#BicyclesChangeLives pic.twitter.com/gofNwizCJ8
— Team Qhubeka ASSOS (@QhubekaAssos) February 4, 2021
Stage two
| 1 | Timothy Dupont | BEL | 3:35:15 |
| 2 | Pierre Barbier | FRA | |
| 3 | Giacomo Nizzolo | ITA | |
| 4 | Rudy Barbier | FRA | |
| 5 | Christophe Laporte | FRA | |
| 6 | Nacer Bouhanni | FRA | |
| 7 | Marc Sarreau | FRA | |
| 8 | Gerben Thijssen | BEL | |
| 9 | Silvan Dillier | SWE | |
| 10 | Edward Theuns | BEL |
*Selected
| 46 | Morne van Niekerk | RSA |
General classification
| 1 | Christophe Laporte | FRA | 6:49:37 |
| 2 | Timothy Dupont | BEL | +0:02 |
| 3 | Nacer Bouhanni | FRA | +0:04 |
| 4 | Pierre Barbier | FRA | +0:06 |
| 5 | Ludovic Robeet | BEL | +0:07 |
| 6 | Giacomo Nizzolo | ITA | +0:08 |
| 7 | Mads Pedersen | DEN | |
| 8 | Tony Hurel | FRA | +0:09 |
| 9 | Alexandre Delettre | FRA | +0:11 |
| 10 | Bryan Coquard | FRA | +0:12 |
*Selected
| 98 | Morne van Niekerk | RSA | +0:12 |
