Sicard shows flashes of class

Quietly and steadily, Romain Sicard appears to be returning to something reminiscent of his old form.

His Tour de France debut earlier this summer was everything but a success, but all throughout this week he's posted solid performances in the Eneco Tour. On Saturday, he put in his best performance in quite some time.

The 150km sixth stage, the race's most arduous from Riemst to the famous La Redoute climb, was taken out by Sky's loyal Basque domestique Davíd López García. The erstwhile Euskaltel rider formed part of the day's main break and showed his quality by going all the distance and taking a richly deserved victory. Behind him were quite a few of his earlier breakaway companions, while new overall leader Tom Dumoulin came home fourth.

Sicard was Euskaltel's best man, staying with the forerunners for quite some time en route to 19th on the stage. That was ahead of noted riders like Philippe Gilbert, Björn Leukemans, Jens Keukeleire and Niki Terpstra to name but a few, propelling him to a healthy 14th overall with only Sunday's final stage remaining.

Also not too far off was Garikoitz Bravo, the first-year Euskaltel rider coming in 37th.

Results:

• (1, Davíd López (SKY), 3:51:10)
• 19, Romain Sicard, 1:05
• 37, Garikoitz Bravo, 1:57
• 53, Rubén Pérez, 15:09
• 54, Juan José Lobato, s.t.
• 95, Jon Aberasturi, 16:47
• 125, Miguel Mínguez, 19:20
• 131, Jure Kocjan, s.t.
• 132, Ioannis Tamouridis, s.t.