Bryan Coquard won stage 3 of the 2014 Etoile de Besseges today – successfully holding off Nacer Bouhanni and John Degenkolb in a sprint finish.
Meanwhile, Sander Helven managed to survive the first serious day of climbing in this years race – to defend his leader’s jersey.
Today’s stage presented riders with their first challenging day of climbing. Indeed, during the three passages of category 1 Col de Trelys – some 50 riders got dropped at various points along the climb. And, only a handful of riders like Tosh van der Sande, Blel Kadri, Jeffry Romero and Julien Fouchard – enjoyed time off the front during the ascents – before everything came back together in the final 7 kilometers.
Coming into the final kilometers, the Giant-Shimano team seemed to have things under control – with their man Degenkolb poised for a final surge. However, both Coquard and Bouhanni found themselves equally well positioned. And, instead of Degenkolb harnessing the impetus, the duo ended up denying the German sprinter his chance at seizing the victory- as they both crossed the line ahead of him.
Top 25 Finishers
1 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Team Europcar 3:46:11 2 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) FDJ.fr 3 John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Giant-Shimano 4 Benjamin Giraud (Fra) Team La Pomme Marseille 13 5 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF 6 Romain Feillu (Fra) Bretagne Séché Environnement 7 Baptiste Planckaert (Bel) Roubaix Lille Métropole 8 Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise 9 Tosh Van Der Sande (Ned) Lotto Belisol 10 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) Wanty – Groupe Gobert 11 Olivier Pardini (Bel) Verandas Willems 12 Christophe Laborie (Fra) Bretagne Séché Environnement 13 Stéphane Poulhies (Fra) Cofidis Solutions Crédit 14 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) AG2R la Mondiale 15 Fernando Grijalba (Spa) Caja Rural – Seguros RGA 16 Antoine Demoitie (Bel) Wallonie – Bruxelles 17 Jeffry Johan Romero Corredor (Col) Colombia 18 Nicolas Vereecken (Bel) Verandas Willems 19 Axel Domont (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale 20 James Vanlandschoot (Bel) Wanty – Groupe Gobert 21 Steven Tronet (Fra) Bigmat – Auber 93 22 Adwar Fabian Diaz Cardenas (Col) Colombia 23 José Goncalvez (Por) Team La Pomme Marseille 13 24 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale 25 Omar Fraile Matarranza (Spa) Caja Rural – Seguros RGA
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