Etoile de Besseges 2018, De Bie wins stage 4

Sean de Bie (Veranda’s Willems-Crelan) wins the stage 4 of the Etoile de Besseges 2018. After two top-5 placements in stage 1 and 3 the Belgian finally achieves in winning, this time taking out the sprint over Timothy Dupont (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) and Rudy Barbier (Ag2r La Mondiale) on the top of the Mur de Laudun after 152 kms of racing. Marc Sarreau (FDJ) keeps the leader’s jersey with 8 seconds of advantage over Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie) and 10 over Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept).

The day’s first breakaway is marked out by the participation of a dangerous contender as Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) is. The peloton soon reels in the early break, evaluated too dodgy to let it extend its gap. A second attempt has more luck. Remy Di Gregorio (Delko Marseille-Provence KTM), Tom Devriendt (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Julien Antomarchi (Roubaix- Metropole) and Gianni Marchand (Cibel-Cebon) open a two minutes advantage over the bunch and keep it constant until the entrance into the first of the three scheduled final laps of 15,3 kms.

The leader Marc Saurreau had to stop because of a mechanical issue with 40 kms to go and grabbed the back of the peloton with a solo effort. The bunch keeps jumping across the gap and reaches four-fifths of the breakaway on the penultimate climb of the Mur. Tom Devriendt burns his matches and tries to take the spoils but the bunch reels in over the Belgian and approaches the last ascent opening the gates to a bunch sprint, in which De Bie showed the strongest legs.

STAGE CLASSIFICATION

1 Sean De Bie (Bel) Veranda’s Willems Crelan               3:43:14
2 Timothy Dupont (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
3 Rudy Barbier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
4 Pierre Barbier (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole
5 Damien Touze (Fra) St Michel-Auber 93
6 Anthony Turgis (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
7 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Vital Concept Club
8 Marc Sarreau (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
9 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
10 Amaury Capiot (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1 Marc Sarreau (Fra) Groupama-FDJ                                 14:47:38
2 Thomas Boudat (Fra) Direct Energie                              + 0:00:08
3 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Vital Concept Club                        + 0:00:10
4 Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits    “
5 Sean De Bie (Bel) Veranda’s Willems Crelan                 “
6 Timothy Dupont (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert               “
7 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale                  + 0:00:16
8 Milan Menten (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise             + 0:00:17
9 Dries Van Gestel (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise         “
10 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Direct Energie                           “