Results Etoile de Bessèges 2026 | Lotto-Intermarché's Mathieu Kockellmann take surprise sprint win against Groenewegen and Moschetti

Luxembourg is back in the spotlight, a nation that doesn't often see in the current peloton many victories at UCI level. Mathieu Kockelmann has taken his first pro win since joining Intermarché - Lotto, beating Dylan Groenewegen in a chaotic bunch sprint at the end of stage 2 at the Etoile de Bessèges.

The flat and rainy day in Bessèges provided some more difficulty than the previous day due to the hours spent in the bad weather, however a bunch sprint was always going to be difficult to prevent. Samuel Leroux, Maël Guégan, Axel Bouquet and Arnaud Tendon formed the day's breakaway, a move that at first didn't appear to be overly dangerous, as the riders also faced no obvious obstacles that would make the chase hard.

Bouquet was the first to drop back, however even with a peloton featuring several teams chasing, it became very hard to make the catch on the survivors. And in front, one of the riders had something extra to give in the final kilometers, and so with 3.5 to go Arnaud Tendon set off the front, still with a gap over the peloton that appeared to give him a good chance of taking the stage win.

The Van Rysel Roubaix rider was almost going to shock the peloton by taking a surprise stage win from the breakaway, however in the very last meters of the stage, already mid-sprint, he was caught by the sprinters who were full-speed already. There was a photo-finish then to understand who the stage winner would be, but this was ultimately Mathieu Kockelmann of Lotto-Intermarché who took here his second pro win. Dylan Groenewegen and Matteo Moschetti completed the podium right behind.