February 4, 2026
Bellegarde hosts the traditional opening stage of Etoile de Bessèges with a 150KM circuit race around the city. The course is almost entirely flat with only 480M of elevation gain all day. Those 480M are entirely made up of three passages of the Côte de la Méditerranée, a 700M climb at 8%, with the finish on the top of the last ascent. The entrance to the climb is narrow and there is always a big acceleration to get into the bottom in good position. Timing is also crucial in a sprint like this. Go too early and you'll be swept up by riders rushing from behind.
Highlighted Riders
Sprinters: Henri Uhlig, Matteo Moschetti, Dylan Groenewegen, Sandy Dujardin
GC: Paul Lapeire, Alexandre Delettre
Race Summary
It's almost a guarantee that one day will be wet of Etoile de Bessèges and today is the day. Temperatures were 10C (50F) making for chilly and damp conditions but the race goes on and out of the gate, four riders went up the road including Victor Vercouillie of Flanders Baloise, Léandre Huck of Van Rysel Roubaix, Jaakko Hänninen of Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur, and Nils Aebersold of Elite Foundations. They had a good gap of nearly 4 minutes with 85KM to go but the peloton was anxious due to wind blowing with gusts of 35KM/HR. Vercouillie led the break over the first ascent of the Côte de la Méditerranée with 78KM to go but they had work to do because the peloton were closing in at just 2 minutes 30 seconds.
The bunch settled down and many took the opportunity for one last nature break and the gap went out to 3 minutes 20 seconds. A TV attack went from Samuel Leroux of TotalEnergies but he never got more than 30 seconds ahead of the peloton and was caught with 53KM to go as Decathlon CMA CGM took over the pace in the bunch. The race settled into a more regular format and with 37KM to go, Vercouillie led over the top of the Côte de la Méditerranée for the second time with the gap back down to 2 minutes 40 seconds.
The sun came out, the motivation picked up in the break, and the demeanor of the riders changed to defiance and belief. Unibet Rose Rockets added firepower to the chase with Decathlon CMA CGM and we had a full team pursuit on our screens. The first casualty of the increased pace was Hänninen who was popped off with 21.5KM to go as Vercouillie ramped up the effort and sent the Fin off the back. With 19KM to go, new teams came to the front including Alpecin-Premier Tech, Groupama-FDJ United, and TotalEnergies to try and reduce the 2 minute deficit.
At 9KM to go, the gap dipped under 1 minute but it wasn't for lack of trying for the guys out front. Aebersold gave his last turn with 4.5KM to go, leaving only Vercouillie and Huck out front but they hung tight and went under the 1KM banner with 15 seconds. Vercouillie took the left turn onto the climb and the road immediately started to rise. Huck dropped but Vercouillie was a man determined. He tried but his legs finally gave way with just a few hundred meters to go as a clutch of around 15 riders made their way passed. Lukáš Kubiš of Unibet Rose Rockets powered forward and got a gap on everyone in the last 300M except for Tom Crabbe of Flanders Baloise. Kubiš led through the final left turn to the line but Crabbe accelerated more quickly. Crabbe held his advantage to the line to give Flanders Baloise an incredible victory and to pay Vercouillie back for the immense amount of work he did the in the break. Clément Izquierdo of Cofidis led a group of ten in at 2 seconds with other groups coming in at 5 and 10 seconds.