GP La Marseillaise and Étoile de Bessèges raise curtain on 2024 French road season

2023 GP La Marseillaise: Neilson Powless celebrates his victory
2023 GP La Marseillaise: Neilson Powless celebrates his victory (Image credit: Getty Images)

France’s 2024 road racing season gets underway in style this weekend, with the hilly, technical Grand Prix La Marseillaise on Sunday preceding a punchy, varied five-day course in the Étoile de Bessèges-Tour du Gard, which starts on Wednesday.

Double defending champion Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), who took a stunning solo win in the GP La Marseillaise last January before narrowly outpowering Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) at the last possible moment for the overall victory in Bessèges, is not taking part, but there are plenty of high-profile potential successors.

Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.