Euskaltel miss out in Bessèges

Euskaltel once again missed out on the decisive break in the Etoile de Bessèges on Friday - and now have a big job on their hands if they want to return to general classification contention.

Friday's third leg was, what with its decidedly hilly nature, a stage suited to team captain Romain Sicard, Jure Kocjan and the like - on paper anyway. A big group got away early on and, despite the best efforts from the latter, the orange team were left without a representative and were thus forced to assume control of the pack in the hope of reeling the break back in.

They never succeeded, though, Jérôme Cousin bested Francaise des Jeux duo Roux and Vichot to the stage win. The peloton crossed the finish line 36 seconds back, and Sicard, Urtasun, Kocjan and Mestre all managed to stay with this group. Pérez, García and Sáez all ceded numerous minutes after paying for their efforts earlier in the day.

With two days and three stages to go, Sicard is the team's best placed rider overall in 35th, 48 seconds down on Friday's stage winner.

Results (full results here):

• (1, Jérôme Cousin (Europcar), 3:40:02)
• 43, Romain Sicard, 0:36
• 61, Pablo Urtasun, s.t.
• 68, Ricardo Mestre, s.t.
• 69, Jure Kocjan, s.t.
• 115, Rubén Pérez, 12:27
• 116, Ricardo García, s.t.
• 138, Adrián Sáez, 15:39

General classification:

• (1, Jérôme Cousin (Europcar), 10:49:31)
• 35, Romain Sicard, 0:48
• 62, Jure Kocjan, 1:04
• 66, Pablo Urtasun, s.t.
• 94, Ricardo Mestre, 1:52
• 122, Rubén Pérez, 12:59
• 124, Ricardo García, 13:18
• 134, Adrián Sáez, 16:30

Photo: Euskaltel Euskadi