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Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) scored his second victory of the year in the opening stage of Etoile de Bessèges, shutting down an attack from last year’s stage winner Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) before powering into the headwind to take the first leader’s jersey.
Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën) rounded out the podium of an elite group after an aggressive day of racing through crosswinds around Bellegarde.
The victory gives the 20-year-old a four-second advantage on Pedersen and six on Cosnefroy, with the remainder of the peloton led by Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech) at 13 seconds.
De Lie, who garnered the majority of Lotto-Dstny’s points last season, is off to another strong start after taking out the 1.1-ranked Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana 1969.
How it unfolded
Ayco Bastiaens (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Jean-Louis Le Ny (Nice Métropole Côte D’Azur), and Simon Pellaud (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) attacked from the gun and were given a large gap by the peloton who were saving their energy for the expected crosswinds in the latter part of the stage.
The trio had over five minutes when the critical moment came where Ineos Grenadiers conspired with Trek-Segafredo to split the peloton.
The lead group left EF Education-EasyPost on the back foot, with team leaders Magnus Cort and Neilson Powless missing the front group. They had Stefan Bissegger and Andrea Piccolo to…
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