Following the start of the French road season at the GP La Marseillaise at the weekend, the Etoile de Bessèges marks the first stage race in the south of France, kicking off on Wednesday and running for five days.
A number of big-name riders have opted to start their season at the race in southern France, including Olympic champion Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), home favourite Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), and star sprinter Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates).
Cyclingnews will be bringing you full reports, results, news, interviews, and analysis throughout the race.
Read on to find out how to watch the Etoile de Bessèges via live stream, no matter your location, with ExpressVPN.
Time trial world champion Filippo Ganna will join Carapaz in lining up for an Ineos Grenadiers squad that includes several new signings such as Magnus Sheffield and Ben Tulett.
Classics star Greg Van Avermaet heads up the AG2R Citroën selection, while several other names expected to factor through the spring also start. Former Tour of Flanders winner Alberto Bettiol rides for EF Education-EasyPost, while former world champion Mads Pedersen joins Bauke Mollema racing for Trek-Segafredo.
Magnus Cort and Michael Valgren are also racing for EF, while other major names at the race include Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates), Jesus Herrada, Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), and Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalEnergies).
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The race kicks off with two uphill finishes in Bellegardes and Rousson before stage 3 offers something for the sprinters despite hills late on. Stage 4 brings the summit finish at Mont Bouquet while the final day is an 11km time trial that should act as the GC decider.
Live stream
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The race commentated in English is only available on GCN+, which is available via GCN+, on the GCN app, at £39.99 for a year.
The race will be aired in France live on L'Equipe TV while in Belgium RTBF will show live coverage. Both of the livestreams look set to be geo-restricted, however.
If you live outside a broadcast zone or are on holiday outside your country and find that the live streams to be geo-restricted, you can get around this by getting access to them by simulating being back in your home country via a 'virtual private network', or VPN, for your laptop, tablet or mobile.
Our sister site TechRadar tested hundreds of VPNs and recommends the number-one VPN currently available as Express VPN. With ExpressVPN, you can watch on many devices at once including Smart TVs, Fire TV Stick, PC, Mac, iPhone, Android phone, iPads, tablets, etc.
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