Étoile de Bessèges – Preview
It’s the big one! The 2021 Étoile de Bessèges – Tour du Gard. And the latent sarcasm in those opening two sentence is feeling increasingly misplaced, as some of the world’s best riders have converged on the five-day race following a wave of early-season race cancelations. There will be no less than three Tour de France winners at the start line on Wednesday.
So, in fact, this is easily the biggest race this year so far. And it might remain so for a while if all the Covid-19 variants have timed their fitness peaks right.
But we shouldn’t be glib about the virus. The race founder and director, Roland Fangille, died last November after contracting the virus. This year’s race is organized by his daughter Claudine, who says she want to keep the race on the calendar in memory of her father.
Where to Watch
This isn’t a race with a history of being broadcast worldwide. In fact, this is the first year they’ve sold the TV rights. So unfortunately, you have two options:
France: L’Equipe TV
Belgium: Sporza
The Route
The Etoile de Besseges takes place in the Gard department. If you’re not a geography whiz, that’s in southern France, and the race often visits Nimes. And its location makes it a race for the sprinters.
This year’s edition has a stage for the puncheurs, two obvious sprint finishes, and one hilly stage that could a wild card, but will probably just be a sprint from a slightly smaller group. Oh, and it finishes with a 10km time-trial, just to separate those sprinters.
| Date | Stage | Start/Finish | Distance | Start (CET) | Finish (CET) |
| Feb 3 | 1 | Bellegardes – Bellegardes | 143.5km | 13:10 | 16:52 |
| Feb 4 | 2 | Saint Geniès de Malgoirès – La Calmette | 154.1km | 12:50 | 16:41 |
| Feb 5 | 3 | Bessèges – Bessèges | 154.8km | 12:50 | 16:50 |
| Feb 6 | 4 | Rousson – Saint Siffret | 151.6km | 12:45 | 16:44 |
| Feb 7 | 5 | Alès – Alès ITT | 10.7km | 12:45 | 16:42 |
The Riders
This year’s race has probably the strongest field in its history. The number of great riders is almost too long to list, and while they won’t all be looking to do much more than finish unscathed, there are certainly a few that we’ll be keeping an eye on.
They include: Pascal Ackermann, John Degenkolb, Giacomo Nizzolo, Mads Pedersen, Brian Coquard, Oliver Naesen, and Phil Gilbert.
Oh yeah, and three Tour de France winners are on the startline too. We don’t expect anything more from them than a wave to the crowd at the daily sign-in, but it’s still exciting that Egan Bernal, Geraint Thomas, and Vincenzo Nibali will be racing here.