Lukas Kubis loses leader's jersey in Ster van Bessèges final time trial, Ewen Costiou claims double victory
Ewen Costiou pulled off a double victory on the final day of the Étoile de Bessèges. The Frenchman won the closing time trial and took the leader’s jersey from Lukas Kubis.
On the fifth and final day of the Étoile de Bessèges, a 10.3-kilometer individual time trial was on the program. Most of the course was flat, but the last 2.8 kilometers climbed at an average gradient of 5.3 percent. Lukas Kubis defended a thirteen-second lead, over closest rival Henri Uhlig on this route. In total, nineteen other riders were within thirty seconds of the Unibet Rose Rockets rider.
Decomble replaces Labrosse
Among the early starters, Kasper Haugland posted the best time. The 20-year-old Norwegian, contracted with the development team Decathlon CMA CGM but racing this week for the WorldTeam, held the hot seat for a while. He was eventually displaced by Samuel Leroux, who in turn was beaten by Aimé De Gendt. The Belgian from Pinarello Q36.5 then lost the top spot to Jordan Labrosse.
Wessel Mouris (Unibet Rose Rockets) came very close to Labrosse’s time but had to concede three seconds at the finish line. The Dutchman took the provisional second place. Riders like Tomas Kopecky, Sander De Pestel, and Dylan Teuns also narrowly fell short of Labrosse’s time. Eventually, the Frenchman from Decathlon CMA CGM was dethroned by his compatriot Maxime Decomble. The 20-year-old talent was a full fourteen seconds faster than Labrosse.
Costiou records the best time
This meant Decomble was also quicker than Niklas Larsen, the big time trial ace for Unibet Rose Rockets. The Dane posted the fastest split times, but lost nine seconds at the line. Decomble’s lead was short-lived, however, as soon after Ewen Costiou finished—five seconds quicker than Decomble. With this performance, Costiou also put himself in strong contention for the overall victory.
The main threat to Costiou still seemed to be Lapeira. However, the latter fell short of both the stage win and overall triumph. All eyes then turned to leader Kubis. The Slovak, who didn’t ride in his usual Unibet Rose Rockets time trial suit, had a twenty-second margin over Costiou in the general classification but lost too much time on the final climb to hold on. Costiou thus achieved a double win.
Kubis dropped to fourth place overall, behind Lapeira (second) and Decomble (third). His fellow Rocket Larsen moved up to fifth.
