Etoile de Bessèges - Tour du Gard 2025 Stage 5

February 9, 2025 It's the traditional ITT around Alès that caps off the Etoile de Bessèges. With the majority of the World Tour teams out of the race and Kévin Vauquelin's GC lead at nearly 1 minute, the outcome of the race overall is not in much doubt. The stage and the remaining podium is still to play for though and everyone should be eager to race their bike today given it is dry and much warmer than in previous days. The route is not simple however. There are multiple tight turns along Le Gardon River and the final 2.6KM averages 5% as they climb up to L'Hermitage. Oliver Knight of Cofidis set a fast early time of 15 minutes 52 seconds and had to sit in the hot seat and wait to see if his time would stand up. The French Junior ITT Champion from 2024, Maxime Decomble of Groupama-FDJ, was first to beat Knight then it was Decomble's teammate Rémi Cavagna who took the top spot with a time of 15 minutes 26 seconds. Only race leader Kévin Vauquelin of Arkéa-B&B Hotels could eclipse the time of Cavagna. Vauquelin came in with a time of 15 minutes 10 seconds to take the stage win and the GC Overall. Cavagna was second place on the day with Dylan Teuns of Cofidis doing a strong ride to finish third. There was a shake up in the GC behind Vauquelin. Teuns jumped to second with his ITT performance while Kevin Geniets of Groupama-FDJ did enough to hold his third overall.