Étoile de Bessèges: Ewen Costiou surges in stage 5 time trial to snatch overall victory from Lukáš Kubiš

Kubiš, who had led the race since stage 3, finished 15th in the TT, dropping down to fourth overall.

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Second on the stage went to Costiou’s teammate Maxime Decomble, whilst Paul Lapeira (Decathlon CGM CMA) took third, which earned him second overall.

Decomble completed the overall podium.

After four sprinter-friendly stages, the final day began with 11 riders sitting within 20 seconds of leader Lukáš Kubiš, everything was still up for grabs in the test against the clock and several riders could take the stage win or the overall title, or indeed both.

The racing unfolded over a 10.5km course in wet and rainy Alès, with the first half flat but the finish coming at the top of the 2.8km Site de l’Ermitage climb. Eleven riders opted not to start the final stage, dodging the rain to wrap their race up early and not go for a result.

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The early benchmark time was set by Samuel Leroux (TotalEnergies) but he didn’t stay at the top of the table for long. Jordan Labrosse’s (Decathlon CMA CGM) 15:16 had him in the hot seat for a while, but when the top riders started finishing, that time was quickly beaten.

Costiou set a clearly very fast time at 14:57, which immediately looked like enough to win the stage, but he had to wait for 10 more riders to finish to confirm that, and whether he could take the overall too.

Lapeira was the obvious threat, having started the day in fifth with four seconds on Costiou, but ultimately his ride came up short, six seconds slower than Costiou and not enough to take the race lead. From there, the rest of the final riders couldn’t come close to Costiou’s time, and when leader Kubiš crossed the line some 35 seconds down on the time to beat, Costiou’s stage and overall victories were confirmed.