For the third day in a row, John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) finished on the podium in the Etoile de Besseges but the elusive first win of the season is still escaping the strong German. His team admits that double stage winner Bryan Coquard (Europcar) is simply too strong at the moment and is now looking forward to tomorrow's final uphill time trial.

John Degenkolb must be getting a bit frustrated at the Étoile de Bessèges after finishing second once again on today’s fourth stage. The podium spot is John’s third in as many days as he looks to get his first win of the season under his belt.

Stage 4 was a tough 156km route from Goudargues to Laudan, taking in several climbs including the Mur de Laudan twice in the final third of the race. The day’s breakaway was only brought back into the fold within the last 3km as the bunch raced up towards the finish where a tough 500m ramp to the line awaited them.

Degenkolb wasn’t far off but was beaten by the fast Frenchman, Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar), already a stage winner yesterday.

“It was another close result today but Coquard once again had a bit more speed,” said coach Christian Guiberteau. “The main thing is that John is finding his form ahead of the spring races which is important."

Tomorrow is the closing time trial of the race where Tobias Ludvigsson – who finished in 10th place today – is looking to put his time trial bike to good use and set a strong result against the clock. The Swede has kept up with the best on all stages and is only 34 seconds behind Sander Helven (Topsport Vlaanderen) on GC, meaning that a high overall result is within reach for the Swedish TT specialist.

“Tomorrow it will be really interesting to see how Tobias Ludvigsson performs against the clock," Guiberteau said. "Some of the guys, including Tobias have done some track testing recently to fine tune their positions on their Giant Trinity Advanced SL time trial bikes and it will be good to put this to the test.”

Degenkolb is the best-placed Giant-Shimano rider in 5th.