Belgian Tim Wellens won the Etoile de Besseges cycling race after Filippo Ganna took Sunday’s closing time trial, ending a five-year French stranglehold on the event. Wellens, who rides for the Lotto-Soudal team, topped the closing overall standings by 53 seconds from Ineos’ Polish rider Michal Kwiatkowski.
Time-trial world champion Ganna, also with Ineos, took the 10.7 kilometer fifth stage honors around the streets of Ales in the Gard region in a time of 15:00.
“I was confident before the time trial and had good feelings. But you can never be sure of anything,” said 29-year-old Wellens who was fourth on the stage.
“It felt nice to start this closing time trial with a lead of more than 40 seconds. I had really good legs today, something I already noticed this morning.
“But most of all, I was really motivated to give Vic Swerts (founder and owner of Soudal) a nice gift for his 81st birthday.”
Ganna, who had also won Saturday’s stage on a breakaway, finished the time-trial with a 10-second advantage over Benjamin Thomas (Groupama-FDJ).
STAGE RESULTS
| 1 | GANNA Filippo | INEOS Grenadiers | 15:00 |
| 2 | THOMAS Benjamin | Groupama – FDJ | 0:10 |
| 3 | HAYTER Ethan | INEOS Grenadiers | 0:21 |
| 4 | WELLENS Tim | Lotto Soudal | 0:29 |
| 5 | LAPORTE Christophe | Cofidis, Solutions Crédits | 0:31 |
| 6 | KWIATKOWSKI Michał | INEOS Grenadiers | 0:34 |
| 7 | BETTIOL Alberto | EF Education – Nippo | 0:35 |
| 8 | DOULL Owain | INEOS Grenadiers | 0:38 |
| 9 | POLITT Nils | BORA – hansgrohe | ,, |
| 10 | STEWART Jake | Groupama – FDJ | 0:41 |
OVERALL RESULTS
| 1 | WELLENS Tim | Lotto Soudal | 13:56:23 |
| 2 | KWIATKOWSKI Michał | INEOS Grenadiers | 0:53 |
| 3 | POLITT Nils | BORA – hansgrohe | 0:59 |
| 4 | STEWART Jake | Groupama – FDJ | 1:02 |
| 5 | WÜRTZ SCHMIDT Mads | Israel Start-Up Nation | 1:19 |
| 6 | GOGL Michael | Team Qhubeka ASSOS | 1:24 |
| 7 | VAN AVERMAET Greg | AG2R Citroën Team | 1:25 |
| 8 | THEUNS Edward | Trek – Segafredo | 1:36 |
| 9 | CARISEY Clément | DELKO | 1:41 |
| 10 | EIKING Odd Christian | Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux | 1:45 |
RBA/AFP Photos: Bettini
The post 2021 ETOILE DE BESSEGES STAGE 5 RESULTS appeared first on Road Bike Action.
