Place Name: Avenue Alphonse Peyric
Address: 22 Avenue Alphonse Peyric, 30160 Bessèges, France
Details: February 6, 2026
Other than the final ITT to L'Hermitage, today is the best remaining opportunity to make a difference in the GC. Starting and finishing in Bessèges, the riders have 162KM and 2,000M to climb with the main features towards the end of the day. The course consists of two laps, a large lap taken on once and a smaller 28KM lap ridden twice. The first passage of the finish line comes with 56KM to go to start the first of the small laps. On each local lap, there are two climbs, the first is the Col de Trelis, a 3.6KM climb at 5.6%. The 2.2KM, 5% climb of the Col des Brousses follows shortly after for a quick one-two punch. On the second time around, the Col des Brousses tops out 12KM from the finish which will make the finale quite dynamic if taken on aggressively.
After two rain soaked days, the sun finally came out and we got the views of Southern France and the Cévennes that we yearn for all winter. A group of ten made the early selection to form the break of the day including Blake Agnoletto of Groupama-FDJ United, Kasper Haugland of Decathlon CMA CGM, Sébastien Grignard of Lotto Intermarché, Alexis Renard of Cofidis, Alexys Brunel of TotalEnergies, Tomáš Kopecký of Unibet Rose Rockets, Alexandre Balmer of Solution Tech Nippo Rali, Victor Papon of Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur, Léandre Huck of Van Rysel Roubaix, and Théo Delacroix of St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93. The group had 90 seconds on the peloton with 76KM to go and with no representation up front, Pinarello Q36.5 and Polti-VisitMalta were chasing hard behind.
With 70KM to go, the gap was down under 1 minute at the start of the Col des Brousses for the first of three ascents. Through the finish line with 56KM to go, the gap was 35 seconds and the catch felt imminent. Walter Calzoni of Pinarello Q36.5 made the first move from the peloton near the bottom of the Col de Trelis but he caught and the bunch went back into standard chase mode. Meanwhile up front, the break accelerated on the climb, shed two riders, and built their advantage back up to over 50 seconds.
The first real attacks from the peloton came on the Col des Brousses with 41KM to go. Jordan Labrosse of Decathlon CMA CGM got a gap and continued over the top. He was joined by Baptiste Vadic of TotalEnergies and by the bottom, the rest of the peloton were 10 seconds behind. Vadic and Labrosse bridged to the original break but again, the gap remained at 10 seconds with Groupama-FDJ United towing the peloton into the void.
On the approach to the final ascent of the Col de Trelis, the peloton was a beehive of activity to position for the climb. Groupama-FDJ United assumed the front of the bunch on the Col de Trelis but they were having a hard time making a dent in the gap to Labrosse and Kopecký who had broken away from the rest of the break. The gap dissolved when an attack came from Ramses Debruyne of Alpecin-Premier Tech. Labrosse and Kopecký were caught and Debruyne went again. He couldn't shake the first 20 riders but a counter attack by Ewen Costiou of Groupama-FDJ United did the damage. With Costiou was Debruyne, Dylan Teuns of Cofidis, and Paul Lapeira of Decathlon CMA CGM. The pace slowed for a moment and Kopecký was able to latch back on to make a lead group of five.
The five leaders could not hold the pace and were caught by a larger group to make a lead group of around 20 riders on the descent. On the flat road towards the final climb of the Col de Brousses with 14KM to go, a chase group reconnected with the lead group to form a peloton of around 35 riders. Clément Izquierdo of Cofidis counter attacked and started the climb with a 10 second advantage. Labrosse rode as hard as he could from the bottom to the top of the climb. He caught Izquierdo but still had 15-20 riders in tow as they crested.
When the race reached the bottom of the descent with 7KM to go, Unibet Rose Rockets took control because they had Lukáš Kubiš still in the group. Kopecký was still there working for his team as well and certainly deserved man of the match for being present after having been in the break from the start. In a head scratching moment, Teuns made an all out attack with 2.5KM to go which pulled a group of seven clear when he had his teammate and sprinter, Jenthe Biermans, comfortably in the group. Unibet Rose Rockets closed things up right at 1KM to go and the race set up for a sprint.
TotalEnergies moved forward and kicked off the lead out with Unibet Rose Rockets just behind. Both Unibet Rose Rockets and TotalEnergies got shuffled around and a bit lost when the sprint opened up. Henri Uhlig of Alpecin-Premier Tech took advantage and hit maximum speed before everyone else. He seemed to carry more momentum into the slight drag up to the line which propelled him to a convincing win. Kubiš found his way through into second with Louis Hardouin of Van Rysel Roubaix sprinting in for third.
With just about everyone still on the same time in the overall, the top three on the day now hold the top three in GC with a sprint and an ITT still to come.
Tags: Etoile de Bessèges-Tour du Gard, 2026, Etoile de Bessèges-Tour du Gard 2026, Stage 3, February, Bessèges, Blake Agnoletto, Kasper Haugland, Sébastien Grignard, Alexis Renard, Alexys Brunel, Tomáš Kopecký, Alexandre Balmer, Victor Papon, Léandre Huck, Théo Delacroix, Walter Calzoni, Jordan Labrosse, Baptiste Vadic, Ramses Debruyne, Ewen Costiou, Dylan Teuns, Paul Lapeira, Clément Izquierdo, Lukáš Kubiš, Henri Uhlig, Louis Hardouin