Will the bad luck ever stop for Arnaud Courteille? Every year the young FDJ rider seems to repeat the same hopeless scenario: after a good winter, he demonstrates good form in the early races before he crashes heavily. Last Saturday, he broke his right collarbone in a crash two kilometers from the finish of the fourth stage of Etoile de Besseges.

A car badly parked two kilometers from the finish caused a swerve in the bunch and Courteille, seventh if the first stage, who was placed in the front row, found himself on the ground with a pain he knows too well.

"I'm really sad for him," said sports director Yvon Madiot after going to the hospital. "This is the fourth time this has happened to him!"

A few minutes later, the sporting director of the FDJ team heard the expected verdict: broken right collarbone but this time without complications. Surgery is not necessary and Courteille will recover quickly.