One week after his big witn at the Tour du Haut Var, Ben Gastauer underlined his great condition by being a key protagonist in the Classic Sud Ardeche.

The race was won by Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne-Seché Environment) after Gastauer's Ag2r teammates Pierre-Roger Latour and Guillaume Bonnafond, had been part of the early breakaway which was caught with 35km to go.

Gastauer made it into the decisive move but being no sprinter he had to settle for 11th.

"The gap to the breakaway never exceeded 5 minutes," Ag2r sports director Gilles Mas said. "Twelve riders got clear, including Ben. He was part of a first attack but when he was caught, he was emoty. The entire team was good but we were not rewarded. Jean-Christophe (Péraud) forced the pace on the Cote du Rocher Sampzon to make the race hard and encourage Romain (Bardet). We remain focused for tomorrow's Drome Classic."

The team bounced back with a win in the latter race where Samuel Dumoulin emerged as the strongest.