Unibet Rose Rockets second again in Tour de Bessèges, Henri Uhlig beats Kubis

Unibet Rose Rockets once again failed to secure a win at the Tour de Bessèges. After two second-place finishes in the first two stages, the team finished second again on Friday with Lukas Kubis. Henri Uhlig sprinted to victory in Bessèges.

With Tom Crabbe in the leader’s jersey, the Tour de Bessèges continued on Friday with a hilly stage starting and finishing in Bessèges. In the finale, riders had to tackle the Col de Trelis twice (3.6 kilometers at 5.6%) and the Col de Brousses three times (2.2 kilometers at 5.1%), making it a decisive day for the general classification.

In the opening phase, Tomas Kopecky joined the early break alongside riders like Alexandre Balmer, Blake Agnoletto, Sébastien Grignard, Alexis Renard, and Alexys Brunel. The breakaway held strong for a long time and even survived most of the climbing section, aided by riders such as Jordan Labrosse, Baptiste Vadic, and Matys Grisel, who bridged across less than forty kilometers from the finish.

Strong Kopecky’s break ends, Kubis defeated
Fourteen kilometers from the finish, the breakaway containing Kopecky finally came to an end, leaving the sprinters in the peloton to contest the stage win. The day had already taken its toll: Tom Crabbe and race leader Mathieu Kockelmann had dropped off earlier. Lukas Kubis, however, managed to survive all the climbs by hanging on and started the last ten kilometers in a promising position within a significantly reduced peloton.

Unibet Rose Rockets tried to keep the peloton together in the finale to set Kubis up for a sprint finish. They succeeded—although it got tense about two kilometers from the line when a break with Paul Lapeira, Maxime Decomble, and Dylan Teuns attempted to escape. In the sprint, Henri Uhlig launched an early attack and boldly took the victory. Kubis came from behind but couldn’t pass the German in the final meters.