Cycling: Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) has won the Etoile de Bessèges. He defended his overall lead in the final individual time trial with his second place behind stage winner Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal). Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin) also presented himself strongly. The German finished seventh today and thus moved up to sixth place in the overall standings. Nico Denz (Ag2r) was presented with the mountain jersey.
Tony Gallopin is second overall again
Things got exciting again on the last day of the Etoile de Bessèges. Tony Gallopin closely followed his compatriot Lilian Calmejane. In the end, however, he was five seconds short. After all, he was able to console himself with the stage victory that he finished this tour in second place for the third time in a row. Behind Gallopin and Calmejane, Pierre Latour (Ag2r) was third, Mads Würtz Schmidt (Katusha-Alpecin) was fourth and Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie) was fifth.
Strong performance by the Germans Politt and Denz
But the German drivers also had reason to be happy. After Nico Denz had already secured the mountain jersey yesterday, Nils Politt provided an exclamation point today. He was seventh in the stage and is therefore in sixth place overall at the end of the tour. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) won the points classification ahead of Arnaud Démare (FDJ). Mads Würtz Schmidt won the ranking of the best young driver with a lead of 29 seconds over his teammate Nils Politt.