Mads Pederson wins Etoile des Besseges first stage, Remco Evenepoel wins at Volta a la Comunitat Valencia

Mads Pederson of Trek-Segafredo overcame windy conditions in the South of France to win stage one of the Etoile des Besseges while QuickStep-AlpaVinyl's Remco Evenepoel claimed victory in the opening stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. Former world champion Pederson finished a second ahead of Arkea-Samsic’s Hugo Hofstetter and TotalEnergies’ Edvald Boasson Hagen in Bellegrade after an impressive uphill sprint to the finish line.

Ad/> Strong winds broke the peloton up into smaller groups with 70km to go with Filippo Ganna of Ineos Grenadiers and Greg Van Avermaet of AG2R-Citroen among the leading bunch of elite riders. CyclingBlazin’ Saddles: The biggest disappointments and must-do-betters of 202129/12/2021 AT 10:45 /> As they moved towards the Cote de la Tour finale, the gap between the leading group and the trailing riders grew to 30 seconds.

Chris Lawless of Total Energies then pushed ahead and took the lead but the Briton could not stop Denmark's Pederson from powering ahead of him up the uphill tilt and claiming the win. ‘Let the kid be’ – Froome calls for calm over Bernal recovery Buitrago storms clear to win Stage 2 of Saudi Tour Van Avermaet clear to race spring campaign without vaccine booster A last-minute drive from Boasson Hagen saw the Norwegian edge Alberto Bettiol of EF Education-EasyPost for third place while Lawless ended up finishing sixth at four seconds.

Stage two, which kicks off on Thursday, is a156km route from Saint-Christol-les-Ales to Rousson with another uphill tilt to the finish line. Further south at Valencia's Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Belgian rider Evenepoel impressed throughout, pushing ahead from the start of the race.