Marco Marcato wins the fourth stage of the Etoile de Besseges 2012
Marco Marcato won the 150 kilometre stage 4 of the Etoile de Besseges 2012. He finished the race in the quickest time of 1 hour, 45 minutes and 13 seconds.
Niko Eeckhout finished second, with Julien El Fares, Jerome Coppel and Jean-Marc Bideau securing the third, fourth and fifth positions in the respective order.
A much needed victory for the Italian rider who had awaited the top podium place since a long time.
He finished second overall during the Etoile de Besseges, GP Pino Cerami and the Paris-Tours in the previous season.
He also finished 3rd overall at the Tour de Pologne and achieved the 2nd overall spot at the Etoile de Besseges 2011.
The cyclist was overwhelmed with the stage win, “It is good to win the first 2012 race for the team. Last Sunday I was close at La Marseillaise and now I take the win. This winter I worked hard on my sprint and it pays off. My shape is pretty good for the
time of the year," he briefed.
Marco grabbed a total number of 25 points for himself after a spectacular performance during the fourth stage.
Niko Eeckhout, Julien El Fares, Jerome Coppel and Jean-Marc Bideau occupied the next four positions, with 20, 16, 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Stage 3 winner, Pierre Rolland of Team Europcar is currently leading the overall classifications, with a lead of 6 seconds over Franck Vermeulen.
Marco has a deficit of 8 seconds and currently sits on the third overall spot.
Rolland was impressive during the third stage and, with two more stages to go, he is a strong overall contender for the race.
He told L’Equipe, “This Bessèges circuit was complicated and when I saw that the break was starting to run out of steam, I went on the offensive. There was nothing premeditated about it, and the peloton could very well have come back”.
Kris Boeckmans is currently leading the points classifications with 44 points in his bag, while Marcato is five points behind at the second position.
Bobbie Traksel, Pierre Rolland and Anthony Ravard occupied the next three spots.
Bertjan Lindeman, Remi Cusin and Georg Preidler are the top three leading cyclists at the Mountains classification.
Gijs Van Hoecke, George Preidler and Anthony Delaplace are leading the young rider classification.
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