Larrinaga falters in Piémont Pyrénéen finale

Jon Larrinaga dropped out of the top ten overall on the Tour du Piémont Pyrénéen's final stage on Sunday.

21-year-old Larrinaga was lying in a healthy seventh overall going into the final stage from Lembeye to Serres-Castet after taking second on Saturday's stage, but couldn't keep pace with the leaders. He crossed the line in 54th place, meaning he dropped to 12th on GC.

It was a discreet performance all around from the team today, as the usual suspects, Mickaël Larpe, Julien Alaphilippe, Yoann Barbas, Arkaitz Durán, Julien Loubet and the likes, took centre stage. Just like on Saturday, GSC Blagnac rider Loubet took stage honours, pipping Top 16 Cycliste's Frenchman Sylvain Blanquefort and Tecnics Abutriek CT's 21-year-old Belgian Edward Theuns by four seconds.

24-year-old Basque Jon Pardo, a former pro but now with Entente Sud Gascogne, came in fifth on the stage, while 11th on the day was good enough for Azysa's Arkaitz Durán to claim third overall behind victor Jerome Mainard and Mickaël Larpe.

Stage three results (full results here):

• (1, Julien Loubet (GSC Blagnac), 3:14:21)
• 54, Jon Larrinaga, 1:54
• 73, Víctor Etxeberria, 3:38
• 79, Alain González, 19:00
• 80, Mikel Iturria, s.t.
• 81, Loïc Chetout, s.t.

Final general classification:

• (1, Jerome Mainard (CR4C Roanne), 10:21:26)
• 12, Jon Larrinaga, 4:28
• 27, Víctor Etxeberria, 7:57
• 76, Mikel Iturria, 48:51
• 83, Alain González, 1:01:56
• 84, Loïc Chetout, 1:05:18

Larrinaga was eighth in the climbers' competition, ninth in the points classification and eighth in the combined classification. As a team, Naturgas ended up 14th.

As for another Fundación Euskadi-related news, Orbea rider Haritz Orbe got his Tour de l'Avenir campaign underway with a 3,7km prologue. Orbe came in an okay 94th, 22 seconds down on winner Jay McCarthy. Results here.

Photo: Michel Masseing