It was an unfortunate beginning of Etoile de Bessèges  for CCC Sprandi-Polkowice. “The riders in orange” finished outside the top 50 in stage 1 and lost some time in the general classification.

"At the beginning of the stage, a big group broke clear and we were not able to join the escapees. We had to chase them down and not let them establish too much of advantage. The chase was interrupted by a crash, which split the peloton in few groups. Our riders didn’t suffer any injuries but the crash played a role in the outcome of the stage. Strong wind which was blowing throughout the race didn’t help us either," Robert Krajewski, sporting director, said.

The team had to lead the chase without Stefen Schumacher. The German has been sick lately and had to abandon the race.

The advantage of the 28 escapees, who got away at the beginning, leveled out at 2 minutes. It was brought down to little bit over one minute, with 30km to go. This is when the peloton became more active and some riders tried to counterattack.

Eventually it came down to a sprint from 13-man group, which was won by Kris Boeckmans (Lotto-Soudal) ahead of Edward Theuns (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) and Marco Coledan (Trek Factory Racing). Davide Rebellin was 82nd, 2:04 back. Adrian Honkisz finished the stage with the same time.