The third day of the Etoile de Bessèges saw Vacansoileil's Borut Bozic's sprint dominance come to an end, with Frenchman Samuel Dumoulin besting the Slovenian in the 148.3 kilometer stage from Pont-Saint-Esprit to Bagnols-sur-Cèze. Dutchman Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano) rounded out the podium in third.
The breakaway on the day featured Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux), Christophe Kern (Cofidis), Fabrice jeandesboz (Saur-Sojasun) and Sander Armee (Topsport Vlaanderen). The four didn't have the right combination to make it to the finish, and were absorbed by the peloton with 20 kilometers remaining.
In the end, the man with the small build showed he packed plenty of power, with Dumoulin producing Cofidis' second win for 2010. Second place was enough for Bozic to retain the leader's jersey for tomorrow's 140 kilometer penultimate stage.
Stage 3 results - 148.3 km from Gran Prix du CC Rhone to Ceze-Languedoc:
1. Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis, Le Crédit en Ligne)
2. Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team)
3. Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano)
4. Nico Eeckhout (An Post-Sean Kelly)
5. Mathieu Ladagnous (Française des Jeux)
6. Fabien Bacquet (BigMat-Auber 93)
7. Pieter Jacobs (Mercator-Topsport Vlaanderen)
8. Mickaël Larp (Team-Roubaix Lille Metropole)
9. Gregory Joseph (Mercator-Topsport Vlaanderen)
10. Enrico Gasparotto (Astana)
11. Dominique Rollin (Cervélo Test Team)
12. Roy Curvers (Skil-Shimano)
13. Johan Mombaerts (BigMat-Auber 93)
14. Pierre Rolland (Bbox Bouygues Telecom)
15. Yuriy Krivtsov (AG2R - La Mondiale)