Tim Wellens took the overall victory in the Etoile de Besseges as the Lotto Soudal rider kept his leader’s jersey after stage 5 time trial, won by world time trial champion Filippo Ganna.
For a long time, Ethan Hayter was in the ‘hot seat’ with his time of 15:21. The Ineos Grenadiers rider was pushed out of the top spot by Groupama-FDJ rider Benjamin Thomas with 15:10. At that time the world champion Filippo Ganna was on the road. Saturday’s stage winner thundered round the course, and went 10 seconds under Thomas’s time with 15:00.
Overall leader Tim Wellens defended a 44 second lead over fellow countryman Edward Theuns after he finished 4th in the stage, 29 seconds behind Ganna.
Wellens took the overall victory of the Etoile de Besseges, after he won stage 3 on Friday solo in the hilly stage to Besseges. In the final general classification, he was ahead of Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) by 53 seconds. Nils Politt (BORA-hansgrohe) finished third at 59 seconds.
