John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) had his third near-miss in a row when he sprinted to 3rd on the hilly 3rd stage of the Etoile de Besseges. The German was disappointed to fail to pay back his teammates who controlled the entire stage but is still hopeful that he can win tomorrow's queen stage of the race.

John Degenkolb has once again come up just short at the Étoile de Bessèges, finishing third on stage three. The stage was a fair bit tougher than the previous two, with nine main climbs to get over before the finish in Bessèges. Despite the difficulty the race came back together in the last 10km for a bunch sprint.

Team Giant-Shimano took control of the peloton in the final few kilometres to set up Degenkolb but by the finish line he had to settle for the third step on the podium.

The team had tried to get a rider into the early breakaway but when the mission failed, they had to do most of the chase work.

“It was a tough day out there today," Degenkolb said." We missed out on getting in the break and had to control the race behind but the guys did a good job. Roy Curvers did a great job getting me into position but I didn’t quite have the speed to get past the other two."

Tomorrow is the day of the queen stage that includes two late passages of a very steep climb. Degenkolv hasn't given up hope that he can still take a win in the French race.

"Tomorrow is a tougher finish, so we will see what we can do there and then it is the time trial which Tobias Ludvigsson is really motivated for," he said.

“It’s a shame we missed out on the win today as the guys did a great job in controlling the race,” said coach Christian Guiberteau after the finish. “The parcours was tough with several climbs making it hard to control the bunch, and the break was strong too but they worked well together and brought it all back together for a sprint. The guys are still motivated and we’ll go away and make a plan for tomorrow.”