Three days after Pim Ligthart’s win in the GP La Marseillaise, Kris Boeckmans continued Lotto Soudal’s excellent start to their early-season campaign when he won today’s opening stage of the Etoile de Besseges. On a very windy day that saw the peloton split to pieces, he bridged across to a first echelon halfway through the stage and after he joined the right 13-rider break in the finale, he managed to beat his companions in a sprint.

Three days ago Pim Ligthart got Lotto Soudal’s season off to a great start when he took his first win in his first race in his second season with the Belgian team. Today another rider who had gone winless through his debut year with the team continued the success when Kris Boeckmans emerged as the strongest in the first stage of the first European stage race of the year, Etoile de Besseges.

Known as a sprint festival, it was no surprise to see Boeckmans take the win in Beucaire but the Belgian didn’t use his usual skills to win the race in a bunch sprint. Instead, he had to survive the selection on a very windy and dramatic day in Southern France.

In fact, Boeckmans seemed to be out on contention when he had missed the split early in the race when a 28-rider first echelon managed to get clear after just 5km of racing in brutal crosswinds. For a long time, teams like CCC Polsat, Colombia and An Post battled into a headwind to get back in contention after they had missed the selection but for most of the day, the gap stayed around the 1.30-mark.

With Tony Gallopin – arguably the best time triallist in the breakaway – Lotto Soudal seemed to be content with the situation but when the peloton hit a new crosswinds section, they contributed to the pace-setting. When a group took off, they had Boeckmans, Lighthart, Dennis Vanendert and Maxime Monfort in the group, meaning that they found themselves in a great position when the two front groups merged on the first of the four laps of a 6.6km finishing circuit.

At this point, Marco Coledan (Trek), Evaldas Siskevicius (Marseille) and Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r) had escaped from the front group while it became apparent that the chase work in the peloton from Ag2r would not pay off as the main group constantly lost ground. This opened the door for new attacks in the front group and 10 riders bridged across to the leaders to make it a 13-rider group.

With Vanendert, Boeckmans and Ligthart all in the break, Lotto Soudal had strength in number and they worked hard to keep their chasers at bay. With a 20-second advantage, they played their first card with 2km to go when Ligthart took off.

The Dutchman was still clear with 800m to go but in the end he got caught. It didn’t matter too much thouh as his teammate Boeckmans was ready to finish off the work by beating Edward Theuns (Topsport Vlaanderen) and Marco Coledan (Trek) in the sprint to win the first stage. 17 seconds later Marc Sarreau (FDJ) led the chase group across the line.

With the win, Boeckmans is also the first leader of the five-day race and he has a good chance to defend his jersey. Tomorrow’s second stage doesn’t contain a single categorized climb, meaning that it will likely be a bunch sprint or another crosswinds drama.

A flat stage

The 45th Etoile de Besseges kicked off the European stage racing season with a 153.9km first stage from Bellegarde to Beaucaire. The first 127.5km took the riders from the start to the finish and were mostly flat, with only two category 2 climbs set to challenge the riders. The stage ended with four laps of a 6.6km finishing circuit which was completely flat, meaning that a sprint was the most likely outcome.

However, the riders took the start in cold and very windy conditions, with the temperature being only 6 degrees. As the first part of the race was made up of long straights in a crosswind, the peloton was almost destined to split and it was a very nervous bunch that left Bellegarde.

The peloton splits

As one could expect, this made for a very fast start to the stage but despite the fast pace, Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r-La Mondiale) managed to briefly escape. However, he was quickly brought back and after just 5km of racing, the peloton had split into three different groups.

Very quickly, the first group had managed to build an advantage of 30 seconds over a second echelon while the peloton was at 50 seconds. The two latter groups merged but the front group worked hard to maintain their advantage in the first part of the race.

A strong group

The group was made up of Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar), Steve Morabito, Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale), Giacomo Nizzolo, Marco Coledan (Trek Factory Racing), Pello Bilbao, Miguel Angel Benito (Caja Rural), Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Michael Van Staeyen, Anthony Turgis, Loïc Chetout, Christophe Laporte (Cofidis), Marco Marcato, Roy Jans (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Jonathan Hivert, Romain Feillu (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Antoine Warnier (Wallonie-Bruxelles), Bert Van Lerberghe, Floris De Tier, Sander Helven (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Brian Van Goethem (Team Roompot), Evaldas Siskevicius, Alexandre Blain, Remy Di Gregorio, Julien Loubet (Team Marseille 13-KTM), Gorik Gardeyn (Veranclassic-Ekoï), and Julien Duval (Armée de Terre) and at the 17km mark they had extended their advantage to 1.03. In the peloton, it was the CCC Sprandi team that started to chase and for a long time they kept the gap stable at around 1.10.

After 30km of racing, the balance started to tip in favour of the escapees who managed to extend their advantage to 2 minutes by the time Loubet led Di Gregorio and Coquard over the top of the first climb. Meanwhile, Stefan Schumacher (CCC), one of the overall contenders, abandoned the race.

Colombia starts to chase

Colombia now joined forces with CCC and they managed to stabilize the gap around the 2-minute mark. However, CCC Polsat had now blown up and instead An Post-Chainreaction joined forces with the Colombian team.

The race was now facing a headwind and the peloton was now having the upper hand. As they entered the feed zone, the gap had been reduced to 1.30 but the break was still riding single-file.

The peloton splits again

That was too much for Gardeyn who got dropped from the peloton and fell back to the peloton. Meanwhile, the peloton was starting to tire and Loubet beat Siskevicious and Chetout in the KOM sprint to take the first mountains jersey, the advantage was back up to 1.50.

After the long headwind section, the riders again hit some crosswinds and this caused another split in the field. A 25-rider group consisting of Jerome Cousin, Cyril Gautier (Team Europcar), Thibaut Pinot, Kevin Reza, Marc Sarreau (FDJ), Maxime Daniel, Pierre-Roger Latour (AG2R), Bob Jungels, (Trek), Kris Boeckmans, Maxime Monfort, Pim Ligthart, Dennis Vanendert (Lotto), Gert Joeaar, Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis), Carlos Julian Quintero (Colombia), Olivier Chevalier, Antoine Demoitié (Wallonie-Bruxelles), Bjorn Leukemans (Wanty), Alo Jakin (Auber 93), Edward Theuns, Eliot Lietaer (Topsport), Julien Antomarchi, Baptiste Planckaert (Roubaix), Dylan Groenewegen (Roompot), Julien El Fares, Benjamin Giraud (Marseille 13-KTM) and Benoit Sinner (Armée de Terre) managed to get clear and they managed to bring the gap down to 1.10 with a little less than 50km to go.

The attacking starts

Siskevicius decided to launch an early attack from the breakaway but he was quickly brought back. Meanwhile, the chasers had brought the gap down to 45 seconds while the peloton led by Ag2r was at 1.25.

Just after the riders started the first of the four laps of the 6.6km finishing circuit, the chasers were breathing down the neck of the escapees and this caused some action in the front group. Gougeard, Siskevicious and Coledan decided to take off and while they dangled 10 seconds ahead of their former companions, the chasers made contact to form a big 52-rider group behind the leading trio.

More riders join the leaders

As they started the second lap, the escapees were 8 seconds ahead of the chasers while the peloton was at 1.10. On the second lap, they continued to lose ground while the attacking now really started in the front group.

Lots of attacks were launched over the next few kilometres and 9 riders managed to bridge across to the three leaders. Gautier, Courteille, Vanendert, Boeckmans, Ligthart, Chetout, Helven, Lietaer, Van Goethem and Duval teamed up with the front trio to form a strong 12-rider group.

At the start of the penultimate lap, the 12 escapees were 20 seconds ahead of their chasers while Ag2r was losing ground I the peloton. With a deficit of 1.45, it was clear that the stage winner would be one of the riders in one of the two front groups.

With 5km to go, the escapees were 33 seconds and this made it likely that the group would stay away. This opened the doors for the first attacks, with Ligthart finally getting clear, but in the end it came down to a sprint where Boeckmans emerged as the fastest.