PREVIEW | Etoile de Besseges 2025 stage 1 - 10% sprint for Pedersen, De Lie, Cort Nielsen, Laurance and Magnier
Cycling
From the 5th of February to the 9th, the peloton is in France and will race the Etoile de Bessèges. It is the opening stage-race of the French calendar in 2025. We preview stage 1.
Stage 1 of the race is a traditional one and perhaps one of the most unusual of the year. It is a pan-flat day starting and finishing in the town of Bellegarde where the winds often make an impact. It's a day for the sprinters, but those who can climb, because the final 600 meters average 9% and will make for a super explosive finale.
Prediction Etoile de Bessèges 2025 stage 1:
*** Mads Pedersen, Arnaud De Lie
** Paul Magnier, Magnus Cort Nielsen, Axel Laurance
* Kévin Vauquelin, Richard Carapaz, Marijn van den Berg, Dylan Teuns, Timo Kielich, Filippo Ganna, Jan Tratnik, Maxim van Gils, Sandy Dujardin
Pick: Mads Pedersen
Original: Rúben Silva
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- Funny that they shorten women’s races but have no qualms about letting U23 do the same distances.Jumpyjohn23-03-2025
- Why is that relevant when discussing speed?Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- But he wasn’t the only one ;-)Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Obviously the questions are more important to some here than to them or the team so I suggest looking for answers instead of asking questions between ourselves. We’ll probably get them unless someone actually goes to ask the protagonists themselves. Here are some starters : They like riding together; they have their own rivalry that helps bring out the best in both; they might get more points helping each other compared to racing separate races. In any case, unless we hear MJ complaining about it, I don’t think it’s going to change, it’s the Sepp Kuss syndrome all over again, fans lobbying against the will of the rider.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Mine goes to MVDP for entertaining us all year round :-) Stellar race, Ganna impressive in his own way as many predicted after some oddly lacklustre times.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- i remember when not too long ago mathieu was regarded as a real tactical knucklehead. i’m not sure that was ever quite accurate, but it’s certainly the case that over the years he has become a real master tactician. in the biggest races, van der poel rarely makes choices that don’t fully optimize every specific advantage he has.OCexile23-03-2025
- Whatever the result, I believe the strategy by UAE to launch Pogacar was absolutely the right one. Unfortunately, they just were not able to execute it the way they must have planned, being all over the place at the start of the Cipressa.Cooldude23-03-2025
- They are without doubt not just the best two classics riders of this generation, but amongst the best of all time. MvdP is more suited to MSR and PR (which Pog has yet to race), while Pog is now almost untouchable at LBL and Lombardia. RVV is the only one where both basically have an equal chance to win.Cooldude23-03-2025
- bravissima!
maria2024202423-03-2025 - According to Tadej's Strava upload, he went up the Cipressa at an average speed of 37.6kph. Rocket ship! He did the 5.63km verified 'Cipressa' Strava segment in 8:59 minutes, which has a 4.3% average grade and total elevation gain of 229m. Naturally, he got the Strava KOM.Pogboom23-03-2025