2021 Etoile de Bessèges

Tim Wellens Seals Overall Victory At Etoile de Bessèges

Tim Wellens Seals Overall Victory At Etoile de Bessèges

Begian Tim Wellens seals the overall victory after the stage 5 time trial at Etoile de Bessèges.

Feb 7, 2021 by FloBikes Staff
Tim Wellens Seals Overall Victory At Etoile de Bessèges

Belgian Tim Wellens won the Etoile de Besseges cycling race after Filippo Ganna took Sunday's closing time trial, ending a five-year French stranglehold on the event.

Wellens, who rides for the Lotto-Soudal team, topped the closing overall standings by 53 seconds from Ineos' Polish rider Michal Kwiatkowski.

Time-trial world champion Ganna, also with Ineos, took the 10.7 kilometre fifth stage honours around the streets of Ales in the Gard region in a time of 15mins 0.33sec.

"I was confident before the time trial and had good feelings. But you can never be sure of anything," said 29-year-old Wellens who was fourth on the stage.

"It felt nice to start this closing time trial with a lead of more than 40 seconds. I had really good legs today, something I already noticed this morning.

"But most of all, I was really motivated to give Vic Swerts (founder and owner of Soudal) a nice gift for his 81st birthday."

Ganna, who had also won Saturday's stage on a breakaway, finished the time-trial with a 10-second advantage over Benjamin Thomas (Groupama-FDJ).

Final standings

1. Tim Wellens (BEL/Lotto-Soudal) 13hr 56:23 

2. Michal Kwiatkowski (POL) at 53sec

3. Nils Politt (GER) 59

4. Jake Stewart (GBR) 1:02

5. Mads Wurtz Schmidt (DEN) 1:19

6. Michael Gogl (AUT) 1:24

7. Greg Van Avermaet (BEL) 1:25

8. Edward Theuns (BEL) 1:36

9. Clement Carisey (FRA) 1:41

10. Odd Christian Eiking (NOR) 1:45