Kévin Vauquelin wins atop the Mont Bouquet!

Race reportFeb 8, 2025

World Team TeamÉtoile de Bessèges - Tour du Gard

Kévin Vauquelin has unlocked his 2025 victory record, as well as that of the ARKEA-B&B HOTELS team on the road. The young rider from Normandy won the 4th stage of the Etoile de Bessèges at the summit of Mont Bouquet on Saturday.

Ahead of the final time trial, he is now the overall leader.

Kévin Vauquelin

It rained today from the start of the stage. I had team-mates around me with incredible mental strength. Without them, I don't know if I'd have managed to hold out, and I'd like to thank them for that. I was so cold I couldn't even feel my hands at the end, and all I wanted to do was get to the finish line. I'm happy to finish the job for the ARKEA-B&B HOTELS team. In difficult conditions like today, I'm also happy that I didn't collapse mentally. I'll say it again, but it's thanks to my team-mates who pushed me to the limit. We can all take our hats off to each other: me, my team-mates, but also the whole peloton. I really wanted to race to respect this event, the Etoile de Bessèges, its organisers, the volunteers, my General Manager, Emmanuel Hubert, and all our partners, ARKEA and B&B HOTELS, who support us. I also had a little revenge to take with this finish compared to the last two years. I'm now leader of the overall classification, and tomorrow there's the time trial in Alès. It's a discipline I love, and I want to show myself to be at a very high level in the time trials. What's more, we've got a new time trial bike from our manufacturer Bianchi (the Bianchi Aquila RC, editor's note), and I hope to be able to unveil it in the best possible way on Sunday.

Yvon Ledanois

Sports Director

The aim was to protect Kévin Vauquelin ahead of the climb to Mont Bouquet, sacrificing 2 or 3 riders to control the breakaways. This was done very well. The whole ARKEA-B&B HOTELS team did a great job around Kévin today. Whether it was Anthony Delaplace or Arnaud Démare to ride straight away, the young Pierre Thierry or Baptiste Gillet, Florian Sénéchal and Thibault Guernalec, the latter of whom made a great climb. We've achieved our objective with this stage win. We came here to win the overall classification. There's still one stage to go and we'll be talking about achieving our objective tomorrow evening, at the end of the final stage in Alès. We need to stay focused and ride a good time trial, both with Kévin for overall victory and with Thibault Guernalec, who can hope to finish in the top 5 or better.

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