Laurens De Vreese (Wanty) got close to his first professional win when he was beaten by former teammate Sander Helven in the sprint from the successful breakaway on the first stage of the Etoile de Besseges. Ruling out any chance of overall success, the Belgian is extremely disappointed to have lost a very rare opportunity to take a win.

Laurens De Vreese is widely described as a huge talent and proved his abilities when he was only beaten by Marco Marcato in the 2012 Paris-Tours. Despite an always aggressive showing, he is yet to win a professional race and today he missed out on a big opportunity.

De Vreese who recently signed a contract with Wanty, was part of the breakaway that stayed away to the finish on the first stage of the Etoile de Besseges but was beaten in the sprint by former teammate Sander Helven (Topsport Vlaanderen). As an attacker, the Belgian has very few chances to sprint for the win and he was extremely disappointed with the outcome.

"I am very disappointed," he told Directvelo. "For me it was clearly the victory or nothing. I was very surprised that the peloton gave us a 8-minute lead. With such a gap I started to wonder if we would be able to stay away. But I didn't want to panic. We stayed calm. We waited for the final circuit to go full gas. I gave it everything on the circuit. I have not calculated my efforts, thinking about the final sprint.

De Vreese is now 2nd overall but the race ends with an 11km time trial which makes him rule out the possibility that he will be able to take the overall win.

"In this Etoile de Besseges, the big goal of the team is to win a stage," he said. "For that reason, I am even more disappointed. I have no hopes for the overall win. I am not good in the time trial.

"There are plenty of teams who want to make it a sprint tomorrow. I may try to go for bonuses during the stage but I don't really think so."

The race continues with a stage that is expected to suit the sprinters and ends on Sunday with the time trial.