Waerenskjold surprises top sprinters in Bessèges after car drives onto the course in the final

Søren Waerenskjold won the second stage of the Star of Bessèges. The Norwegian from Uno-X Mobility was surprisingly the strongest in a fast final sprint. He defeated Arnaud Démare (Arkea-B&B Hotels), among others. Even after a bizarre incident on the final climb, Paul Magnier's leader's jersey was not in danger.

Paul Magnier proved himself proper yesterday by winning the first stage of the Star of Bessèges. The French stage race continued Thursday with another sprint stage. Wednesday's stage ended in a power sprint due to the uphill finish. The second stage had a flat finish, but a small climb was nine kilometers from the line. The Côte Cabrières (4.7 km at 3.2%) could still stand in the way of the sprinters and their chances of a bunch sprint.

Five riders managed to break away after a few kilometers in the nearly 166-kilometer ride from Domessargues to Marguerittes. These five would form the leading group of the day: Louis Kitzki (Alpecin-Deceuninck Development Team), Victor Vercouillie (Team Flanders-Baloise), Alexandre Van Petegem (Wagner Bazin WB), Yohann Simon (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) and Maël Guégan (CIC-U-Nantes). The five gained a maximum lead of about four minutes. Van Petegem, the leader in the mountain classification, collected another set of valuable points along the way.

With fifty kilometers to go, the lead of the five leaders had been reduced to just 1:15. The pace picked up, and we prepared for the finale. The question was whether the Côte Cabrières would impact the race. Things went hard toward the foot of the climb, with several teams fighting at the front for a good position. This led to a crash with about ten riders. But the leading group persisted, and sixteen kilometers from the finish, they had defended themselves well. They still had a minute lead.

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Car drives on course, sprint still possible

But on the Cabrières, things went wild, and there was a bizarre incident: a car drove onto the course. The peloton was startled, and a crash followed. Fortunately, without too much damage, it could have been much worse. The climb itself was not challenging. Several breakaway attempts were unsuccessful, including from Axel Laurance of INEOS Grenadiers. It would be a sprint, and INEOS and Soudal Quick-Step had the best teams in place. Marijn van den Berg's lead-out was perfect, but his sprinter Madis Mihkels couldn't pull it off: Søren Waerenskjold came like a jack-in-the-box and secured the victory.

Results stage 2 Star of Bessèges

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