Marcato claims first 2012 victory

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Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM) took a fine victory at Bagnols-sur-Cèze in a truncated stage 4 of the Étoile de Bessèges. The Italian outgunned the evergreen Nicko Eeckhout (An Post-Sean Kelly) and Julien El Fares (Team Type 1 – Sanofi) in the slightly uphill finishing sprint, while Pierre Rolland (Europcar) safely retained his overall lead.

The Italian, who has been so often just behind the winner, credited work in the off-season for his commanding sprint victory. “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," said Marcato.

Sub-zero temperatures and high winds forced the organisers to abandon the day’s planned 150km stage. After rapid consultation, they succeeded in putting together a shortened stage of 66km, which saw the bunch tackle three laps of a circuit around Bagnols-suer-Cèze.

When the delayed stage finally got underway, there was no shortage of attackers, perhaps encouraged by the significant reduction in mileage on the agenda. The first move to gain any traction came from Bobbie Traksel (Landbouwkrediet), who moved clear inside the opening 10km. The Dutchman ploughed a lone furrow for much of the afternoon, and he held a lead of one minute as he centred the third and final lap.

Behind, the Europcar team of race leader Pierre Rolland had taken up the pursuit in earnest, and they were soon joined by Vacansoleil-DCM, with a number of riders dropped off the back of the peloton. Nonetheless, Traksel put up fierce resistance, and he was only reeled in with 4km to go.

In the finale, it was Vacansoleil-DCM who dominated proceedings, and their faith was justified when Marco Marcato ripped clear on the strongman’s finish to hold off the veteran Eeckhout and El Fares, with Jérôme Coppel’s (Saur-Sojasun) fourth place proof that this was no ordinary bunch finish.

The winner of stage 2 and former leader of the race, Marcel Kittel (Project 1t4i) was a member of a large group of riders who were 11 minutes behind the leading group and were eliminated from the race due to the time cut on the short stage.

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