Étoile de Bessèges, the first stage race in France every season, is never usually an event targeted by the biggest names or a fixture WorldTour squads send their most prolific riders to. But the Covid-19 pandemic has changed that.
With planned stage races in Spain and Portugal postponed, and possibly cancelled for this year, and Vuelta a San Juan and Tour Down Under also out of the question, Étoile de Bessèges has benefited with an influx of top quality riders looking for racing.
Ineos Grenadiers has decided to send a very strong team, led by Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal; both riding their first races since bowing out of the Giro and Tour respectively with injuries.
Unfortunately while Ireland's Eddie Dunbar was in the provisional line-up for this race, starting on Wednesday, he is not named in the starting team; those provisional line-ups for stage races notoriously unreliable, especially at the start of a season.
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However, joining Thomas and Bernal in the team is world TT champion Filippo Ganna, young up and coming British start Ethan Hayter, Salvatore Puccio, Owain Doull and former world champion and a Tour stage winner last year Michał Kwiatkowski.
Bernal and Thomas both very much have a point to prove, and need to hit the ground running immediately. However, the absence of really big climbs in coming days in France – though stage 4 is up and down all day – means Ganna is their best bet for a stage win as the final day’s racing is a TT.
Hayter may be the surprise package in the hunt for a
victory on one of the four road stages, the 22-year-old having won Giro
dell'Appennino last season in his first full year with the team.
Of the 22 teams in the race this year, half are WorldTour squads and the line-up is arguably the strongest the race has boasted for decades.
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Vincenzo Nibali is leading the charge for Trek-Segafredo alongside Bauke Mollema and 2019 world champion Mads Pedersen. With the race often favouring sprinters, it may really suit Pedersen.
However, he will face opposition in those sprints in the
shape John Degenkolb (Lotto-Soudal), Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka-Assos) and Pascal
Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe); the latter in the same team as Felix Großschartner and
Lennard Kämna.
EF Education-Nippo lines out with Rigoberto Urán and Alberto Bettiol while Total Direct Energie has Edvald Boasson Hagen. Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet will make his debut for AG2R-Citroën team alongside Oliver Naesen.
Other names that jump out, and who may contend for stages, include Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels p/b KTM), Nacer Bouhanni (Arkéa-Samsic) and Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal).
The race starts on Wednesday with a 141km stage starting and finishing in Bellegarde. Usually it is an event that sees sprinters win from much reduced pelotons as the colder weather and some lumps and bumps on the course tends to split things.
However, some of the major names on the start list may seek to lay down a marker, not to mention make the best of every racing opportunity in the uncertain period we are in due to the pandemic.
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